Roots to Harvest partnership with Community Food Centres Canada 'critical' to Thunder Bay

Roots to Harvest in Thunder Bay, Ont., will undergo a few changes now that it's become a partner of Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC)

However, some things definitely won't change, Roots to Harvest executive director Erin Beagle said.

"What people know and love about Roots, this will stay the same," Beagle said. "We will still be doing youth employment, and we'll still be in schools.

"We'll still be a grassroots, community-based organization."

CFCC says it's helped develop 13 community food centres across Canada. According to its website, it's working with 178 communities and offered over 4,000 food program sessions last year.

CFCC emphasizes there's a need for action to combat the negative effects of food insecurity on millions of Canadians.

"People often feel shame and stigma when they ask for help," its website says. "Individuals who can't afford healthy food suffer more from physical and mental health problems." 

How Roots to Harvest linked with CFCC

Beagle said CFCC's model "is really centring humans with dignified food access, and looking at the root causes of food insecurity and food access. As the time has gone on, we've obviously followed their story, and followed these [centres] opening up across the country, and we've worked in partnership with them in smaller ways as a good food organization.

"In 2019, we reached out and said, 'We're ready,'" she said. "We have capacity here at Roots to Harvest. We have this beautiful space that we've put a lot of resources into, and a lot of different kinds of programs.

"And we think Thunder Bay needs to be on the map to really fill in this picture of community centres across Canada."

Beagle said CFCC representatives visited Roots to Harvest and an official partnership agreement has been signed.

That will bring some positive changes to Roots to Harvest, Beagle said, including:

• Opening a dining room for elders and seniors.
• Opening another location of the community food market.
• Offering space in the Roots to Harvest building for use by community partners.

Roots to Harvest will also receive $75,000 a year in funding from CFCC.

There's also a name change, from Roots to Harvest to Roots Community Food Centre, Beagle said.

The transition is expected to be complete by next spring.

She said the partnership with CFCC is "critical," giving Roots to Harvest the chance to learn from other community centres while sharing its own perspective.

It's good for the country to learn about the realities that are going on in northern Ontario so that we can actually get to some of these things.- Erin Beagle, Roots to Harvest

"There's a huge conversation going on around 'how do we actually get to the root causes of this?'" Beagle said. "It's happening locally, too.

"Being involved at this national level is good for everybody," she said. "All the organizations here. It's good for the country to learn about the realities that are going on in northern Ontario so that we can actually get to some of these things.

"Some of that is income assistance, and some of that is the price of food in northern communities and some of that is transportation," Beagle said. "There's so many different aspects that we need to be able to build on in systemic ways.

"We need to be a part of that," she added. "Otherwise it's just going to happen around us, and we won't have the input that we should have."