Women Leading Change: St. James Town Community Co-op
In this video series, see how a community-led initiative is bringing healthy food and a resilient future to a diverse neighbouhood in Toronto.
Leading Change in Food Sovereignty
St. James Town is one of Canada’s most densely populated and culturally diverse neighbourhoods. With a large newcomer population and predominantly low-income households, it is a culturally rich but under-resourced community. In 2015, local residents formed the St. James Town Community Co-op to address the growing need for food security, community building, and climate resilience.
One of the co-op’s key projects is the Good Food Buying Club, a bulk-purchasing program that gives residents access to healthy, culturally-appropriate food at affordable prices. Their bigger picture goal is to establish a replicable full-cycle food hub model that will help St.James Town—and other downtown neighbourhoods—to become more resilient, just and sustainable. In this short film, meet founding director, Josephine Grey, and see how St. James Town Community Co-op is bringing an ambitious vision for food sovereignty to life.
What is food sovereignty?
Food sovereignty is the right of Peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.
(La Via Campesina)
Inside the Co-op and Buying Club
St. James Town Community Co-op is a community-owned, non-profit enterprise. With an aim to be both local and inclusive, the co-op’s membership and Board of Directors are made up of at least 50% St. James Town residents, while welcoming those from outside the neighbourhood. The co-op runs a number of food, wellness and knowledge building programs, including the Good Food Buying Club. The Buying Club uses the power of bulk-purchasing to offer residents healthy and culturally relevant food at lower prices, while growing relationships with a network of local producers and suppliers to build a more self-sustaining food system in the area.
The co-op’s overarching goal is to establish an eco-smart, climate resilient food hub to support community-based, year-round healthy food and water security. Working with funders, experts, and local residents, the co-op developed the OASIS Food Hub model not only to address the needs of St. James Town but to serve as a replicable model for other communities. When fully implemented, the OASIS food hub will integrate the full food cycle, including sustainable methods for accessing water, growing food, cooking and preserving food, generating energy and managing/reusing organic resources.
Working with Open Food Network
As a non-profit and social purpose organization, Open Food Network Canada’s mandate is to work with local food and farming enterprises to scale fair, local, and sustainable agrifood initiatives in communities across Canada. St. James Town Community Co-op uses our open-source platform to run their Good Food Buying Club, allowing customers to buy online and organizers to easily manage inventory. The online shop is open Wednesdays to Sunday, and is open to all area residents, with co-op members enjoying deeper discounts.
The challenge that the organization was forming around was to help newcomers access healthy food and culturally appropriate food and help them navigate the North American food system. And we came to understand that there needed to be more, better supply. That it wasn’t just a matter of ‘where is this food or that food’ and how did we get it. We actually would need to change the food system.
Meet the Growers & Partners
Working in partnership with Black food sovereignty initiatives, the co-op has established a small but expanding network of community-run microfarms and other suppliers. We’d like to introduce you to a few of them.
Afri-Can FoodBasket
Afri-Can FoodBasket is non-profit organization that promotes food sovereignty for Toronto’s African, Caribbean and Black community through culturally-appropriate food programs, urban farms, community gardens, and other initiatives.
Bee Connected
Bee Connected is a family-run, black-owned apiary that offers pollinator services, climate-driven programs, and sustainably-produced honey in Toronto.
Ubuntu Community Farm
Ubuntu Community Farm is a ½ acre market garden that provides ecologically-grown food, meaningful connections, and jobs for local youth.
Ujamaa Learning Farm
Ujamaa Learning Farm is an ecological, urban agriculture program run by Afri-Can FoodBasket to provide land, training and jobs to Black Canadian farmers and youth.
About the Video Series
Open Food Network Canada is working with award-winning videographer Craig Conoley to celebrate some of the diverse small-scale distribution networks that are thriving across Canada, led by women entrepreneurs with a vision for change. In a series of short documentary films, Women Leading Change introduces the women behind these projects, profiles the farms who take part, and shows up close how short supply chains and regenerative agriculture offer solutions for the future.
Funding for this project has been provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the AgriCommunication Program.
