In most urban areas, food security for low income people is basically non-existent, which undermines community. In The Stop: A new approach to food security, Allison Eady profiles The Stop Community Food Centre. Central to The Stop’s approach to food is their committment to addressing the disempowering dynamics that exist when food is given as charity versus when it is collectively grown, prepared, served, and eaten.
Both of these articles emphasize that food is important for more than just feeding our bodies – it is also an opportunity for empowerment and building community. This was demonstrated to us again in an unexpected way by the strike by hospitality workers at McMaster University. Hospitality workers are a crucial part of the way food is consumed at McMaster, and they were being marginalized by the university administration.
This past month we also saw the destruction of the landmark trees at the St Joseph’s Centre for Mountain Health Services. Seeds of Resistance, by the KLR Collective, describes how over a hundred huge trees were cut in a matter of days, radically changing the character of the surrounding neighbourhood and impacting the nearby forest. Historically, trees have been an important part of food security in Hamilton, and these particular trees have long been a gathering place fo families on sunny days.
By involving ourselves in growing food, creating community spaces to share it, defending members of our community from attack, and recognizing the richness around us, how can we envision a new relationship to food? These articles offer some powerful starting points for this, and we look forward to continuing to publish articles that explore this vision in the coming months and years.
Sunil Angrish, Peter Hopperton,
and Seth Veenstra
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