“We have to embed blackness!” The road to cultivating black food sovereignty in Toronto

BY JANIECE CAMPBELL

Did you know that nearly 30% of black households in Canada experience food insecurity?

A recent study from the University of Toronto revealed this alarming figure, which also happens to be more than twice the national average. In fact, black households are 3.6 times more likely to be food insecure than their white counterparts, illustrating the challenges that African, Caribbean and black (ACB) families face in accessing healthy and cultural-specific foods.

Ready for another shocking statistic? According to a 2019 study by the Daily Bread Food Bank, 24% of ACB households in Toronto were food insecure prior to COVID-19. The pandemic has only exacerbated this already difficult crisis.

For at least 25 years, though often under-resourced, a community effort working towards black food security has made its imprint on the city – Afri-Can FoodBasket.

Afri-Can FoodBasket is a community-based, non-profit organization that has been at the frontlines, fighting for food justice and food sovereignty for Toronto’s ACB communities since 1995. According to the organization, their mission is to provide leadership in urban agriculture, and foster collaboration to advance food justice, health and social enterprise in the African-Canadian community. Founded and directed by Anan Lololi, who has since been appointed to a Research Associate role in the studies of Food Security at Ryerson University, Afri-Can FoodBasket now seeks to lead the development of a Black Food Sovereignty Alliance to address the ever-growing inequalities affecting Toronto’s ACB communities.

On November 27th and 28th, Afri-Can FoodBasket hosted Toronto’s very first Black Food Sovereignty Conference, a free online event exploring the cultivation of food sovereignty in Toronto’s black communities. The two-day cultural affair gave an array of black domestic and international community developers and professionals a platform to highlight intersectional issues concerning the governance of access to food and plans to better these communities that are already structurally disadvantaged within Canadian society.

“The government has a responsibility to its people. It’s a social contract, and that’s why we can hold them responsible. They have a responsibility to dismantle and recreate institutional systems, policies, regulations and laws,” said Aina-Nia Ayo’dele, a Director of Community Resources and manager of the Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit in the City of Toronto.

She continued to speak about her work within the city and actions taken in order to combat the ever-present anti-black racism. On December 5th, 2017, Toronto City Council unanimously passed the Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism, a plan built on forty-one years of black-focussed research and in-depth conversation with the black community.

The five-year action plan focusses on five sectors: children and youth development, health and community services, job opportunities and income support, policing and the justice system and community engagement. Though seemingly well-thought out, many spectators in the event questioned the ability to conquer racism in a span of five years.

“I’m not delusional. This process is 400 years of undoing. five years is not going to get rid of anti-black racism, but in five years, the plan is to embed a different way of being black in the city of Toronto,” Aina-Nia Ayo’dele affirmed.

Baltimore-residing member of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance in America, Saché Jones, also spoke about colonialism’s destructive effect on how we eat today and the generational aspect of how it continues.

“The process of colonization has not only deteriorated our bodies but also our knowledge of food. As we were forced into places of indoctrination, we were fed greasy, salty, sugary foods, none of which had been in our diets before. When we look at the African, Caribbean and Indigenous true native diet, the experience of salt and grease are not present,” says Jones. “Parents were forced away from growing, children were removed from the communities, and natives were left a future of food dependence and ill health. Our dependence on the corporatized colonial food system is based upon slave labour and detrimental practices to the earth. Our poor health is a direct reflection of the earth’s poor health.”

The evening wrapped up with a final call to action towards the black community by Aina-Nia Ayo’dele.

“We need to hear your voices. I’m asking you all to get involved. As black people, I understand why we don’t get involved in these decisions, a big portion of why is because of trust. But if we don’t take part, then there’s no voice. We have to get on those boards. And even if you’re applying and not getting in, we are working from the inside to make sure that shifts. We need to hear you in council. Get on those lists and be heard!”