Strategic Plan
FoodShare is a food justice organization, advocating for the right to food and working to challenge the systemic barriers that keep people from accessing the food they need to thrive. We support community-led food initiatives and work alongside most impacted by poverty and food insecurity- Black and Indigenous people, people of colour, people with disabilities and those living on a low income.
Whether it is supporting urban farms, subsidizing local produce markets or coordinating community kitchens all of our work is about folks accessing food on their own terms. Our vision is a Toronto where everyone can feed themselves, their loved ones and their communities with dignity and joy.
Download our 2022-2024 Strategic Plan
Our Challenges and Opportunities
Sector
The food movement needs to acknowledge and address systems and attitudes that have impeded long-term solutions to poverty and food insecurity. As a trusted leader in the food movement for over 35 years, FoodShare has the opportunity to encourage critical discussion and model community-led food justice work.
Relationship Building
It is essential to prioritize relationship building with communities and grassroots groups who experience the most food insecurity and multiple forms of oppression. We need to listen to and support their efforts to lead change and find solutions. We also have the opportunity to open up conversations with our long-term partners and funders, to ensure they are implementing their own anti-oppression frameworks.
Financial
Building financial stability by sustaining and growing unrestricted revenues, especially from social enterprises, earned income and private donations, will give us the flexibility to advance food justice priorities in a way that isn’t dependent on grant funding, funder alignment and grant funding cycles.
Internal
We must assess how leaders are chosen and cultivated at FoodShare, be critical of who is being given opportunities to lead and determine how to improve. We must provide liveable wages and support systems that contribute to employee wellness and rest. Embedding food justice in our work includes training staff and board members on the ways oppression is manifested in the food system and the food movement.
Areas of Strategic Focus
Community Led
- Goal: Prioritize collaboration with communities in Toronto that experience disproportionately higher levels of food insecurity and poverty (i.e. Black, Indigenous,
People of Colour, People with Disabilities) AND that see benefits in collaborating with FoodShare on initiatives that they are either leading or inspiring. - Shift: From broad community engagement to being intentional in the deployment of organizational resources to individuals and communities experiencing the highest levels of food insecurity and poverty.
Advocacy
- Goal: Prioritize advocating for systems, program and public policy change aimed at eliminating poverty and food insecurity, both at the local and national levels.
- Shift: From being reactive to proactive in developing and executing a data-informed advocacy strategy in order to seize opportunities for dismantling the systems that hold poverty and food insecurity in place.
Diversified Revenue
- Goal: Build a sustainable approach to securing funding from a variety of sources to support innovation, allow for nimble responses to opportunities and challenges and ensure organizational stability.
- Shift: From dependence on (restricted) project grants to increased unrestricted funding secured through earned revenue (social enterprise) and individual, foundation and corporate donations.
Culture Enablers
we commit that in our plans we will:
- prioritize actions that challenge and dismantle the systems that hold poverty and food insecurity in place
- honour people’s lived experience, knowledge and feedback
- be willing to animate difficult conversations
- be willing to invest resources to test new ideas
Resources
LATEST: Download 2022-2024 Strategic Plan
Download 2019 to 2021 Strategic Plan
Download 2016 to 2018 Strategic Plan
Download FoodShare’s Theory of Change
Download FoodShare’s Glossary
Download 2012 to 2014 Strategic Plan
Download 2009 to 2011 Strategic Plan