Food insecurity has long impacted Black communities in Canada, affecting both physical and mental well-being, and the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse.

In Toronto, home to the country’s largest Black population, Black food justice organizations like the Afri-Can Food Basket quickly sprung into action as COVID-19 hit.

“The pandemic highlights the food insecurity within the Black community and the folks that are most impacted by COVID-19 in Toronto centred around the Black community,” said Anan Lololi, executive director of the Afri-Can Food Basket. “And so we are delivering food.”

Since last spring, in partnership with the city, they have been mobilizing under an initiative called Black Food Toronto to deliver fresh food and vegetables weekly to African, Caribbean and Black community members in need. To date, the initiative has provided over 155,000 pounds of food.

In particular, Black Food Toronto puts an emphasis on creating access to healthy and culturally appropriate food, like callaloo and plantain.

“People want their cultural food, it makes them feel good in a depressed environment,” Lololi explained.

This is not the only major initiative that the Afri-Can Food Basket, which has been leading food justice and sovereignty work in the city since 1995, is pursuing during the pandemic. To tackle the staggering issue of Black food insecurity at its root, the organization and other community advocates are partnering with the City of Toronto to build the first municipally led Black food sovereignty plan in the country.

Some groundwork was laid in December 2017, when the City of Toronto approved a five-year action plan to address anti-Black racism across different aspects of society.

But this city-backed initiative didn’t fully take shape until last summer.

In June 2020, amid protests against police brutality and reports about COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black communities, the Toronto Board of Health designated anti-Black racism a public health crisis. A month later, the board voted to explore the development of a Black food sovereignty plan in consultation with community partners. Since then, this initiative has been declared a key priority for the Confronting Anti-Black Racism unit (CABR) — the group responsible for implementing the city’s action plan — in 2021.

Melana Roberts, a policy development officer with the CABR and board chair of Food Share Canada, said the group will likely unveil a Black food sovereignty plan to the Board of Health for approval in the spring.

“Toronto has a very strong history of doing food work,” she said.

“But I think this is unique because it applies an anti-Black racism lens to not only the emergency food work, but [also] how to build sustainable long-term change in partnership with the community and with the city.”

Long-standing issue

Rates of food insecurity in Black communities are high.

Drawing from Statistics Canada data from 2017 and 2018, the most recent report by PROOF — a research team focusing on food insecurity — finds that nearly 30 per cent of Black households are food insecure, which is the highest rate in Canada. An earlier fact sheet created by FoodShare and PROOF also notes that 36.6 per cent of Black children live in food-insecure households, which is around three times higher than the rate for white children.

For many advocates, the root cause of food insecurity has long been identified as a lack of income — not a lack of food.

But as Lololi and Roberts point out, this framework still sometimes neglects the systemic racism that causes Black communities to face a much higher rate of insecurity than their white counterparts. For instance, data from the 2016 census shows that Black individuals — whether they are recent immigrants or third-generation Canadians — earn less annual income than other groups on average. They also often don’t have access to food-producing land.

That’s why these advocates stress the importance of food sovereignty.

“Food sovereignty is really thinking about the right of people of African descent to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sustainable methods,” Roberts said. “It also means the economic, social, cultural agency to define the terms under which you’re accessing your food.”

‘Grow what you like’

A big part of food sovereignty is having agency over food production.

Historically, Black communities have had less access to land for farming due to slavery in what would become Canada as well as systemic racism. This lag persists to this day, despite many community members — including Black migrant workers — providing the labour that maintains the current food supply chain.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has sparked major interest in locally produced food. Cheyenne Sundance is the founder of Sundance Harvest, a year-round urban vegetable farm in Toronto that prioritizes food justice. She said since the start of the pandemic, demand for her produce has skyrocketed.

Given these challenges and opportunities, advocates said the government should expand the access of Black communities to more urban food-growing spaces through changes in zoning bylaws and public planning. For instance, Sundance pointed out that instead of building more golf courses, the city could designate that land for agriculture.

“I really don’t see the city providing food sovereignty until there are large swaths of land in the city allotted to Black people so they can have a space to grow but also sell their vegetables,” she said.

Lololi said that this access to land should also be coupled with learning farms and educational campaigns so that people are equipped to practise food sovereignty.

In the meantime, Sundance noted that individuals can still start their own balcony or backyard garden, or share those growing spaces. “The simplest way is just to grow what you like, and then just share those seeds.”

‘It’s life-long’

Farming is, of course, not the only aspect of food sovereignty.

For instance, Lololi and Roberts highlighted the importance of having community kitchens, food markets and food co-ops that are run by and for Black communities. They also noted the ongoing need for the government to support what Lololi called 3B organizations: Black led, Black serving, and Black focused.

At a broader level, Roberts connects the work to the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent, which runs until 2024.

“It’s really important to centre this work in the bigger picture — the fact that this Black food sovereignty movement is happening around the world and that Toronto is part of a global movement that recognizes and celebrates Black culture and contributions,” she said.

And ultimately, Lololi pointed out that developing a Black food sovereignty plan is just the start.

“The real work starts with how to implement this plan,” he said, noting the need to consider the diversity within Black communities. As of 2016, Canada had Black newcomers from around 125 countries and 36.9 per cent of the country’s Black population resided in Toronto.

Lololi hopes that the work started in the city can be eventually expanded into a national Black food sovereignty alliance.

“It’s life-long. There is no ending.”