Food Security and Food Justice Ecosystem of Edmonton

 
 

During the pandemic, the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights (JHC) cultivated and collaborated with several mutual aid and grassroots initiatives that supported Edmontonians during this difficult time. One key partner was the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative (MCHB) during the time in which JHC led the growth of the Edmonton COVID19 Rapid Response Collaborative, a network of 13 agencies serving diverse populations around food, income security and mental health and working to flatten the curve of infections. 

In addition, since 2020, JHC and the West Hub of Righting Relations Canada conducted outreach across the country and brought together food stakeholders both locally in Edmonton, and further across the Prairies, to gather thoughts and perspectives on food security. The ideas generated provide inspiration for education and advocacy on how we can collectively innovate to shift our food systems. This effort meant to foster connections between individuals, initiatives, agencies and networks doing food security, anti-poverty, anti-racism and gender equity work across the Prairies. 

Art by Joely BigEagle Kequahtooway

This work culminated into the compilation of four reports published in Spring 2022. These reports complemented the 2030 Agenda which focuses on building capacity, education and action across the Prairie provinces in order to address the Sustainable Development Goals from the grassroots up. Since then, we have continued bringing stakeholders together and advocate that food is a basic human right and should be grounded in dignity, community, culture, accessibility, land and well-being.

In Summer 2024, MCHB and JHC successfully received funding from the City of Edmonton’s Community Safety and Well-Being grant and launched a two-year project: Creating a Collaboration Framework that Unites, Aligns and Optimizes the Food Security and Food Justice Ecosystem of Edmonton (FSFJE). The objectives of this project include building and strengthening Edmonton’s food ecosystem by enhancing the collective capacity of agencies working in the sector, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that people and families in Edmonton achieve both food security and food sovereignty. At its core, this initiative aims to inspire hope through innovative and unconventional approaches to advancing food sovereignty.

There are five active Working Groups helping build the pathway forward and support us in achieving the project objectives:

  • Knowledge Mobilization 

  • Food System Asset Map 

  • Sharing and Communications Platform 

  • Grow Plan Strategy for Edmonton

  • Advocacy Plan and Communications Strategy

If you are interested in getting involved, please contact jessica@jhcentre.org or celia@mchb.org for more information on the project or to join a working group team.