Our vision

A Toronto where all people can feed themselves, their loved ones and their communities with dignity and joy.

Our mission

We advocate for food justice by supporting community-based food initiatives and through ongoing advocacy and public education.

Our values

  1. We believe that everyone has the right to food.
  2. We are equity oriented.
  3. We acknowledge the existence of various forms of systemic oppression and work to challenge them.
  4. We believe that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) and low-income communities must play a central role in defining food justice and its priorities.
  5. We recognize that leadership exists in community.
  6. We believe in prioritizing lived experience in addressing food insecurity.
  7. We believe that all bodies have a right to exist as they are.
  8. We are committed to self-examination and ongoing critical assessment of our work.
  9. We ask our partners and funders to engage in ongoing critical assessment of their work.

We advocate for the right to food in Toronto.

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 communities most affected by poverty and food insecurity: Black and Indigenous people, people of colour, people with disabilities, and folks 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 food justice statement

Food insecurity is complex. It’s more than geographic and economic barriers to food access. That’s why at FoodShare, food justice means working to dismantle systemic forms of oppression that exist in our food system and in our food movement.

It means acknowledging that colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy are some of the organizing principles embedded in our current food system, and work together to shape who gets a seat at the table, and who experiences the most food insecurity.

For FoodShare, being a food justice organization means that we are aligning and evaluating our work to ensure that it drives at dismantling sites of exploitation within the food system and our food movement. We use an equity lens to seek justice, and food security, for everyone.

At FoodShare, this looks like:

  • Partnering with communities and trusteeing grassroots groups who experience the most food insecurity and multiple forms of oppression, particularly Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities;
  • Recognizing and supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, applying both to our work;
  • FoodShare’s Indigenous Advisory Circle provides advice to FoodShare on programs and policies, as well as items relating to FoodShare’s advocacy work, reconciliation and partnerships with Indigenous groups.
  • Applying a poverty reduction lens to our most recent pay grid review (July 2018) – raising the lower pay band by 25% while the three highest bands received a 0% increase;
  • Opening up conversation with our long-term partners and funders, to ensure they are implementing their own anti-oppression frameworks;
  • Applying a critical equity lens to our program design and delivery;
  • Embedding food justice in all our work which includes training all staff and board members on anti-racism and the ways oppression is manifested in our food system and food movement. For more on how we’re putting these values into action, read through our Combating Anti-Black Racism Action Plan;
  • Highlighting economic injustice and its impact on our food system.