Future Food Visions is ensuring food sovereignty and justice in Guelph

Future Food Visions explores what happens when community members, newcomers and non-governmental organizations work together to create food sovereignty that ensures food justice.

Shelldale Farm Park Garden Credit: Shelldale Farm Park Garden website

A 2019 study at the University of Guelph (UofG) found that students employed either part-time or full-time are twice as likely to be food insecure compared to unemployed students.

Over 60 per cent of students who are food insecure at UofG have a job. Those relying on a provincial or federal student loan or grant are three times more likely to face food insecurity.

Finding a meal that costs $10, or less, is impossible. That situation is compounded by the fact that the entire campus is now cashless.

The study also found that students are 1.6 times more likely to be food insecure if not on a student meal plan.

As tuition, rent, gas, food and other necessities increase, so does food insecurity. Fully one-third of students who participated in the 2019 study reported having to put off, or forgo entirely, buying food so they could pay for other necessities.

At Halloween student groups organize ‘Trick or Eat’ with volunteer students going door to door collecting cash and non-parishable items. What many donors don’t realize is that the food actually feeds UofG students. The student food bank provides up to 30 food items per month for each student accessing this service. Take a look at the Trick or Eat site to see participating universities along with the list of sponsors which includes Loblaw Companies Ltd.

A group of UofG Theatre Studies students worked with an advisor to explore both food scarcity and insecurity on their campus and in their city. The final product is an interesting, informative, often eye-opening, nine-part guided walking tour called Future Food Visions.

Future Food Visions is a collaborative project exploring food scarcity, insecurity and justice in Guelph, Ontario.

Designed to help folks understand what life is like living with constant food precarity and scarcity in a city, country and world where production is not the issue – distribution is -- Future Food Visions also explores what happens when community members, newcomers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) work together to improve food self-sufficiency while creating food sovereignty that ensures food justice.

Matt Ivanoff was one of five fourth-year Theatre studies students working on the project. Ivanoff told Small Change, “Relating to Future Food Visions, one of the benefits of the Theatre Studies program at University of Guelph is that the professors have the flexibility to adjust course subjects and structure to projects happening outside of the university system.”

That meant Ivanoff and his colleagues were able to work with a multitude of departments as well as non-profits outside of the university system allowing them to develop their practice in collaboration with working professionals.

“For me, the most exciting bit of the Future Food Visions project was being challenged to connect these learned performance practices with research-based community projects. It was a new way of approaching a familiar art form, and I’m thankful to have gotten the opportunity to work on it,” Ivanoff shared via email.

Writer-performers Cassandra Friesen, Samantha Heath, Meagan Downes, Matthew Ivanoff and Rainbow Kester take listeners on site specific tours that include QR-codes connecting directly to each experience.

While the best experience comes from being on location, you can listen from the comfort of your home or car and still connect with the content. Podcasts vary in length from 10 to 19 minutes.

Money Feast, created by Downes, addresses food insecurity and food justice on the UofG campus. Downes also offers alternatives to the student food bank in the form of The Seed and Community FEWD (Food Equity With Dignity).

Stories You Hear in the Park, also by Downes, is situated in Royal City Park next to the Speed River. This tour asks participants to consider food insecurity and personal finances. It also introduces participants to the importance of water protection including key players like Water Watchers and the 2Rivers Festival as well as the vital role Indigenous knowledge plays in water health.

Kester and Ivanoff team up for a dual podcast featuring Kester in My Saturday Nights and Ivanoff in Change Pocketed. My Saturday Nights is intended to be experienced alongside a partner who simultaneously listens to Change Pocketed. Both partners begin at the intersection of Macdonnell St. and Wyndham St. North in the heart of downtown Guelph.

Kester’s portion of the audio walk focuses on a waitress working in one of the popular downtown student bars. She needs to get big tips so she can buy groceries.

While walking home at 3 am she comes across a young woman who needs money for food.  Instead, of giving money, or directing the hungry young woman to the food bank, the protagonist offers a more dignified and sustainable solution in the form of The Seed stall at the Guelph Farmer’s Market which accepts payments for local produce on a sliding scale with the lowest price being 33 per cent below retail.

Meanwhile, Change Pocketed examines who gets to eat downtown and who serves those diners.

In Sprouting, Heath takes us to Guelph’s famous Farmer’s Market where we learn about its long history and get a sense of what it means to the community.

Heath also sends listeners on a market mission that ends with a delicious upcycled treat.

In Stories Woven Through Harvest, Kester emphasizes the importance of having access to culturally appropriate food and the role community gardens play in bringing that to fruition.

Community gardens are a wonderful way to bring newcomers and other settlers together to facilitate the sharing of culture, strength and resiliency.

The Food From Home = Food For Home (FFH 2) Garden is one of those wonderful spaces where newcomers can feel comfortable sharing sacred knowledge and teachings.

Newcomers are encouraged to plant foods from home which improves their food security while introducing more variety within the larger community. At the same time, newcomers are learning about urban farming and community gardens.

(FFH)2 offers training and on-going informal and formal knowledge-exchange through one-on-one farming, workshops, impromptu potlucks and youth apprenticeships.

Ultimately, (FFH)2 means people in the community get fresh, nutritious, and often new foods to prepare and cook at home.

Friesen’s Apple To Seed, Or Seed To Apple guides you around the outside – and virtual inside -- of The Seed warehouse, a not-for-profit food project of the Guelph Community Health Centre.

The Seed is so much more than a food bank. The Seed fills doctor prescribed free food prescriptions; reduces food waste through the Upcycle Kitchen; is commitmented to reducing greenhouse gases; and is building community through social enterprise ventures like Souper Heroes.

You Won’t Believe How Easy It Is, by Ivanoff, is a spoof on gourmet cooking shows. What happens when the host has all the latest equipment, every niche ingredient at their fingertips and an over abundance of self-confidence? Well, even that won’t guarantee a perfect omelette. Make a tea to enjoy in your own kitchen while listening to Ivanoff’s culinary escapades.

In The Provider, Heath takes listeners on a tour of the Shelldale Farm Park Garden in the heart of Guelph’s Onward Willow neighbourhood.

This community garden, located in one of the poorest neighbourhoods, provides culturally appropriate foods like okra, egg plant and Jamaican spinach for the Onward Willow community.

The people of Shelldale have created an inclusive space where food and community come together to grow, cook and thrive. This is food sovereignty and justice in action.

Each Future Food Vision podcast has one follow up activity to help synthesize what you’ve experienced. There’s also a children’s activity package designed for kids 7 to 12 years of age. The comprehensive children’s package can be used in conjunction with the Future Food Visions audio experience or as stand-alone activities. The delicious recipes and ample resources included are intended to get kids thinking about food security and food justice in age-appropriate ways.

Be sure to check out the drop down menu under the About button – top right of the Future Food Visions main website page. You’ll find fabulous information about the circular economy; regeneration, reciprocity and relationships; Guelph-Wellington’s radical and sustained food future; a food system resiliency table and my favourite, Impact to Date infographic outlining amongst other things, the meals and food boxes delivered; funding leveraged; tonnes of upcycled food; and green house gas emissions prevented.

Website link: reimaginefood.ca/visions
Instagram: @futurefoodvisions_
Contact: ffoodvisions@gmail.com

The SEED is a non-profit program that helps increase access to food among people facing poverty. Help them double the amount of high quality, free food they are able to distribute to the community by donating today. Their goal is to distribute $2,000,000 worth of free food in 2023-24. Donate here.