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November-December 2020

Feeding Black and Indigenous families

New volunteer-based project tackles food insecurity during the pandemic

Christine Jean-Baptiste

  Sequestered in each of their own homes, neighbours Antonia Lawrence and Emily Carson didn’t have family around when COVID-19 hit. All they had was the group chat shared between their friendly neighbours. Often, involving inquiries for grocery trips, wanting to share food items, and recipes between each other—a system built on the sentiment that […] More »
July-August 2017

What’s behind the high cost of food in Canada’s North?

Food insecurity in the Northwest Territories remains a pressing issue

Larkin Schmiedl@LarkinSchmiedl

This year, Canada celebrates its 150th birthday. Ours is a country of rich history—but not all Canadian stories are told equally. In this special report, This tackles 13 issues—one per province and territory—that have yet to be addressed and resolved by our country in a century and a half High food prices in the Northwest Territories aren’t new, […] More »
January-February 2017

How one Montreal student is fighting food insecurity in Canada’s North

Behind Eva von Jagow's DueNORTH

Michael Lyons@queer_mikey

Photo courtesy of Isaac Burkam When Eva von Jagow first learned about food insecurity and inflation in the far North in high school, she couldn’t believe it was happening in Canada. “I thought it was a disgrace. I was like, ‘There’s no way this is happening in my own country!’” says von Jagow, now a second-year […] More »
November-December 2016

Syrian refugees build community with cooking

Behind the scenes at the Newcomer Kitchen and Karam Kitchen in Ontario

Amanda Scriver@amascriver

  Photo by J. Walton It has been nearly one year since the Liberal government enacted a program to admit 25,000 Syrian refugees arrived in Canada. In their first year, many of the families faced several challenges to overcome: getting to know a brand new country, finding suitable accommodations, and trying to find a job […] More »
September-October 2016

Community food centres must become more commonplace across Canada

There are already dozens across the country, but there's still work to be done

Christina Palassio@mcpalassio

For our special 50th anniversary issue, Canada’s brightest, boldest, and most rebellious thinkers, doers, and creators share their best big ideas. Through ideas macro and micro, radical and everyday, we present 50 essays, think pieces, and calls to action. Picture: plans for sustainable food systems, radical legislation, revolutionary health care, a greener planet, Indigenous self-government, […] More »
November-December 2014

Not your grandma’s poutine

Hana Shafi

Meet the foodies on the hunt to redefine Canadian cuisine Anita Stewart has spent more than 30 years travelling across Canada, all in the name of food. In B.C., Stewart scuba-dived off the coast of southern Vancouver Island to see sea cucumbers and urchins. On the edges of the east coast, she tried everything from […] More »
November-December 2014

The birds, the bees, and the world

Anna Bowen (poetry)

 Guelph’s ReMediate project connects devastating bee loss, our food system, and the environment In spring 2014, the ReMediate project brought together artist Christina Kingsbury, writer Anna Bowen, and non-profit Pollination Guelph, to make a 305 square metre quilt for the decommissioned Eastview Landfill in Guelph, Ont. Embedded with native seeds Kingsbury collected, the quilt was […] More »
November-December 2014

Sugar free

Larkin Schmiedl

Inside food banks’ controversial no junk food policies Controversy erupted in August after Ottawa’s Parkdale Food Centre announced it would stop accepting junk food, such as Kraft Dinner and hot dogs, effective immediately. Some wholeheartedly agreed with the centre’s stand; others virulently opposed to new restriction. Those in favour felt, like Karen Secord, Parkdale’s co-ordinator, […] More »
November-December 2014

Let them eat $50 cake

Nadya Domingo

On the front lines of the North’s rising food crisis A young, Arctic Bay protestor, about as tall as a baby tree, appears snug in pink mittens and a fur-trimmed coat. Their hands clasp onto a rectangular-shaped cardboard sign: “I need milk.” For Nunavut residents, two litres of milk can cost as much as $14. […] More »
November-December 2014

Peanut butter and chutney

Hana Shafi

A personal journey through food and assimilation My eighth grade classroom was in a portable with a faulty air conditioner. At lunch, the little tin can of a classroom would fill with the pungent smells of masala—a distinct whiff of bay leaf, turmeric-infused curry, and kabobs marinated in garlic paste. The class was predominantly South […] More »
November-December 2014

Return to our roots

Wayne Roberts

How agribusiness erased our food culture—and why it’s time to start fighting back Once taken for granted in most societies, including North American ones, the lively and dynamic connections between the sheer physicality of food and the imaginative realm of culture were thrown under the food truck in 1954. That’s when Harvard University and the […] More »