The intersection of structure and agency within charitable community food programs in Toronto, Canada, during the COVID-19 pandemic: cultivating systemic change

ABSTRACT

Prior to the COVID–19 outbreak, food insecurity was already a serious public health problem in Canada, impacting 12.7 percent of households. In recent years, activists, practitioners and researchers from a range of health–related disciplines, have debated the legitimacy of food banks and other charitable food programs, contending that policy and programs at the federal level must be prioritized to address the underlying root causes of poverty. This paper challenges the discourse that charitable food programs prevent or distract from Canada’s social equity goals. Alternatively, this paper argues that programs and initiatives at the local level can emerge to bring short–term stability and self–sufficiency to local communities while also advocating for longer–term structural change. Drawing upon structuration theory and critical ecologies of anti–Black racism, we examine the work of BlackFoodToronto, a food sovereignty initiative, to illustrate the negotiation of power and agency, and how groups and networks react to and reshape confining and enabling structures through collaborative practice. In addressing Canada’s food security crisis, this paper offers an alternative perspective of community–based, nonprofit and charitable programs, which in practice, can help inform future food security policy and related health equity and community development strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid-19
• black food sovereignty
• structure
• agency

Acknowledgements

This paper derives from work funded by a Partnership Engage Grant (COVID-19 Special Initiative) (#1008-2020-1076) through The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This work involved a partnership with the City of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Office. The authors acknowledge the helpful conversations with members of the Toronto food activism community. A special ‘thank-you’ to the Black Food Sovereignty Initiative for their diligent efforts in addressing short-term community food security gaps and pushing for longer-term system change. This paper does not aim to speak for any member of any community but rather to contribute to a dialogue about the role of community-level organizations and leaders.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: Partnership Engage Grant (COVID-19 Special Initiative) [#1008-2020-1076].