Agrifood systems literacy: Insights from two high schools’ programs in Ontario

2025-03-19 22:13:17 | Contributor(s): Alicia Martin, Marie-Josée Massicotte | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i4.461

Following the increased industrialization and globalization of the prevailing agrifood system, researchers and practitioners have highlighted the detrimental impacts of this model on human health, food security, and the environment. As such, experts and citizens are calling for an increased...

Cultivating critical and food justice dimensions of youth food programs: : Lessons learned in the kitchen and the garden

2025-03-19 22:13:15 | Contributor(s): Tina Moffat, Sarah Oresnik, Amy Angelo, Hanine Chami, Krista D'aoust, Sarah Elshahat, Yu Jia Guo | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i1.547

In this article we present accounts of two youth food programs operating at a Community Food Centre. One program, Kids Club, engages children, aged 6 to 12, in cooking and gardening activities; the other, Cookin' Up Justice, is directed to adolescents (13 to 18 years) and explores food justice...

Towards a common understanding of food literacy: a pedagogical framework

2025-03-19 22:13:15 | Contributor(s): Kimberley J Hernandez, Doris Gillis, Kathleen Kevany, Sara Kirk | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i4.467

Food literacy is an evolving term fundamental to both health and education.  The concept of food literacy typically has been informed by nutrition-focused thinking, with particular emphasis on food skills.  Moving beyond this traditional focus is necessary to address...

From a study of the Newfoundland and Labrador school food system: : Describing an evolution in ways of knowing about school food

2025-03-19 22:13:15 | Contributor(s): Emily Doyle | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i4.471

In this perspective piece I reflect on the importance of considering the place of schools within broader systems for critical school food study and intervention. These reflections are based on my study of school food in Newfoundland and Labrador from a systems perspective which helped reveal...

Seizing this COVID moment: What can Food Justice learn from Disability Justice?

2025-03-19 22:13:14 | Contributor(s): Martha Stiegman | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i1.525

It is now a shameful truism that COVID-19 functioned as a big reveal, exposing, and amplifying the structural inequalities Canadian society is built upon. We are now a year and a half into the global pandemic. I am writing from Toronto, where “hot spots” (neighbourhoods with high infection...

Food, Pandemics, and the Anthropocene – On the necessity of food and agriculture change

2025-03-19 22:13:14 | Contributor(s): Marit Rosol, Christoph Rosol | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i1.532

The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates forcefully that human health, the well-being of animals, and planetary health must not be viewed in isolation—and that they all depend to a large extent on the ways in which we produce, process, trade, and consume food. In this perspective essay, we argue for...

Unwrapping school lunch: Examining the social dynamics and caring relationships that play out during school lunch

2025-03-19 22:13:09 | Contributor(s): Jennifer L Black, Rachel Mazac, Amber Heckelman, Sinikka Elliott | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i2.544

Students are important stakeholders in school food programs. Yet children’s daily experiences and voices are often overlooked in advocacy around school food. In Canada, where the federal government recently expressed interest in creating a National School Food Program, nearly no research has...

Proposing a Framework for School Food Program Evaluation in Canada

2025-03-19 22:13:05 | Contributor(s): Tracy Everitt, Stephanie Ward, Wanda Martin, Rachel Engler-Stringer | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i3.543

Healthy eating in school-aged children supports optimal growth and learning; however, diet quality and food insecurity are a source of concern for many school-aged children in Canada. Canadian school-aged children’s diets are a concern. In 2019 the Canadian federal government announced the...

Engaging youth in food preservation: Examining knowledge and practice on Canada’s West Coast

2025-03-19 22:13:04 | Contributor(s): Majing Oloko, Maureen G. Reed, James P. Robson | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i3.523

Youth in remote communities of Canada, including those in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region (CSUBR), can benefit from building food preservation knowledge because of the additional challenges they experience accessing healthy food. Regrettably, youth in these areas are not adequately...

Food providers’ experiences with a central procurement school snack program

2025-03-19 22:13:04 | Contributor(s): Mariam R Ismail, Jason A Gilliland, June I Matthews, Danielle S Battram | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i3.573

Universal, government-funded school food programs (SFPs) offer many benefits not only to the children they serve, but also to the communities that support them. To date, Canada does not have a national SFP. Thus, if one is to be considered, evaluations of current SFPs in a Canadian context are...

Food insecurity on campus: A community-engaged case study with student-led families at the University of British Columbia

2025-03-19 22:13:04 | Contributor(s): Claudia Paez-Varas, Gail Hammond | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i3.576

This paper draws from a community-engagement case study conducted at The University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. The study examines food insecurity experienced by student families. Research data was collected through quantitative and qualitative methods applied in a residence...

Operationalizing sustainable food systems through food programs in elementary schools

2025-03-19 22:13:04 | Contributor(s): Tracy Everitt, Rachel Engler-Stringer, Wanda Martin | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i3.482

Healthy eating supports optimal growth, development, and academic achievement. Yet, the diet quality of school-aged children is poor. Food insecurity and chronic disease are concerns, as are unsustainable agricultural practices. Sustainable food systems have a low environmental impact and can...

COVID-19: First wave impacts on the Charitable Food Sector in Manitoba, Canada

2025-03-19 22:13:03 | Contributor(s): Joyce Slater, Natalie Riediger, Bhanu Pilli, Kelsey Mann, Hannah Derksen, Avery L. Penner, Chantal Perchotte | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i3.551

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant socioeconomic changes in Canada due to business and school closures, and related job losses. This increased food insecurity among vulnerable populations, as well as many who had not been previously food insecure, placing unprecedented...

“It is the Wild West out here”: Prairie farmers’ perspectives on farmland investment and land concentration

2025-03-19 22:13:03 | Contributor(s): André Magnan, Mengistu Wendimu, Annette Desmarais, Katherine Aske | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v9i3.518

This research builds on the emerging body of literature investigating the implications of changing land tenure relations in the Prairie Provinces, where over 70% of Canada’s farmland is located. Through an analysis of survey data collected in 2019 from 400 grain farmers, we address the...

Band-aid solutions: Small business owners’ perspectives on a sugar-sweetened beverage tax in Manitoba

2025-03-19 22:13:02 | Contributor(s): Fareeha Quayyum, Andrea Bombak, Emma Robinson, Kelsey Mann, Krista Beck, Jeff LaPlante, Michael Champagne, Myra Tait, Riel Dubois, Natalie Riediger | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v10i1.554

This qualitative study explores perceptions of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxation among small business owners/managers (n=7) in Manitoba, Canada through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. Most participants believed the tax would be ineffective; they predicted the majority of...

Barriers and supports to traditional food access in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia)

2025-03-19 22:13:01 | Contributor(s): Amy Grann, Liesel Carlsson, Kayla Mansfield-Brown | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v10i1.571

Canada is a signatory nation on international covenants, conventions, and declarations supporting the human right to food, but has not granted constitutional protection thereof. Failure to uphold the right to food contributes to unacceptably high levels of food insecurity that vary...

A livelihood to feel good about: Enacting values around animals, land, and food outside of the agricultural core

2025-03-19 22:13:01 | Contributor(s): Elizabeh Finnis | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v10i1.599

This paper presents and reflects on findings from ethnographic research conducted with small-scale farmers in the Parry Sound district, Ontario, Canada. The research highlights understandings of what it means to be a “good farmer” and explores how farmers enact their personal values and morals...

Characterizing the development and dissemination of dietary messaging in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Northwest Territories

2025-03-19 22:13:01 | Contributor(s): Julia Gyapay, Sonja Ostertag, Sonia Wesche, Brian Laird, Kelly Skinner | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v10i1.569

Public health communication about diet in Inuit communities must balance the benefits and risks associated with both country and store-bought food choices and processes to support Inuit well-being. An understanding of how dietary messages—public health communication addressing the health and...

“Eating is a hustle”: The complex realities of food in federal prison

2025-03-19 22:13:00 | Contributor(s): Amanda Wilson, Julie Courchesne, Ghassan Zahran | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v10i1.607

Juxtaposing insights from the academic literature with those drawn from lived experience, this Perspective article explores the role of food in federal prisons in Canada. Highlighting its multiple meanings and uses, we underscore the complexity of food in prison as well as its fundamental...

Cohérence des interventions gouvernementales pour prévenir l’insécurité alimentaire des ménages : Le cas du Québec

2025-03-19 22:12:58 | Contributor(s): Marie-Ève Gaboury-Bonhomme, Laurence Bastien, Etienne-Yusufu Kachaka, Laurence Godin, Laure Saulais, Ibrahima Bocoum | https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v10i2.606

In Quebec, food insecurity is a public health issue. Despite the support of several ministries to community and private organizations fighting against food insecurity, it persists and has worsened with the pandemic of COVID-19. This article analyzes the coherence of government policies and...