An op-ed published in The Gazette by Tasha Lackman
As Montrealers prepare to vote this November, one issue connects us all: access to good, nourishing food. This World Food Day, it’s worth asking how our city can be part of building a food-secure future.
Food insecurity is an issue that must be addressed with decisive policy action at all levels. Each level of government has different levers to ensure we can all access enough nourishing food.
Food insecurity is directly related to lack of income, shaped directly by policy decisions. As Executive Director of The Depot Community Food Centre in NDG, I see every day how hunger chips away at people’s ability to hold jobs, succeed in school, and maintain mental and physical health. It fuels isolation and magnifies other struggles, such as housing.
While income supports are largely federal, municipalities have power to shape how food is grown, shared, and accessed. From urban agriculture and community markets to including food systems planning in development strategies, municipalities can help make access to nourishing food a right. This seems to be missing from the major municipal parties’ platforms.
With municipal elections on November 2, let’s focus on the local levers to create vibrant food systems that address food insecurity, while creating vibrant and connected communities. What could this look like?
Imagine that a short walk from where you live is a green space with gardens, a greenhouse, food markets, and community activities. When you walk by, delicious smells of cooking waft through the air, along with snippets of conversation, laughter, and the sounds of kids playing. You see people working together in the gardens, growing food for themselves and for the community. You see a market selling food, and when you go closer you see that the produce is from local farms. You also notice that each item has three prices to make it accessible to everyone. You see your neighbours, lots of familiar faces, but also people you haven’t seen before. You notice a group of kids participating in a cooking workshop at an outdoor kitchen, and people gathered around picnic tables. There are also community organizations at tables, offering information about the resources in the neighbourhood. You see a sign for an outdoor movie night on the community board.
This vision exemplifies a territorial food system: a community-based approach to growing, sharing, and accessing food. It doesn’t just reduce hunger; it builds social connection, promotes local resources, teaches valuable skills, and protects green spaces that help us adapt to climate change.
Spaces like this exist in our communities – but most are temporary, run by organizations like The Depot and our partners, and sustained through the support of philanthropy and community members. No reliable funding or infrastructure exists: no shelter, no storage, no water access. Imagine what we could do with support and the appropriate infrastructure?
This is not unique to The Depot. The Forum systèmes alimentaires territoriaux, an organization that brings together key stakeholders across Québec committed to access to healthy and sustainable food for all, developed a guide to ensure that food security and food systems were on the menu this election season. Among the key levers they identify across the province for building territorial food systems include developing and sustaining public markets and gardens.
As we head to the polls, let’s ask our candidates which levers they’ll pull to make the vision of a vibrant community food hub a reality. A city where no one goes without food must be a priority and the foundation on which our city is built in order for everyone to thrive.
Join us this World Food Day — October 16, 4:00–6:00 PM at Georges-Saint-Pierre Park — for Eat Think Vote, a pre-election event to meet the NDG candidates and explore how we can build a food-secure future together.
→See the op-ed published in The Gazette