By Nea Maaty
(Nea is a journalist with the FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE)

In this episode we bring you Nea Maaty’s reportage from St James Town in Toronto on how community agencies are working together to respond to food insecurity issues and increased demands caused by the pandemic.  

Since the pandemic, difficulty affording food has been particularly increasing. Food insecurity is still one of the major issues in St. James Town especially after the economic drop that affected many people due to COVID 19 lockdown.

The St. James Town Community Co-op is a social enterprise that operates various food initiatives in the St. James Town area.  The Co-op have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by providing an emergency food relief program run out of the Wellesley Community Centre at Sherborne and Wellesley Street. The Co-op is struggling with running out of funding however they are working on finding alternatives to keep their program going.

Not-For-Profit organizations that manage food banks provide a great service to the community. Their work not only helps to secure people who do not have access to food, but also increases the spirit of the community, family, and safety in the neighborhood. However, funding is not the only issue that these organizations face. Since they are mostly run by members of the community, volunteers also could be one of the challenges, namely their stability and ability to keep working and offering their help on the long run.  Other obstacles that these organizations face include the lack of sufficient space, places for storage, materials, tools and more.

Although food banks and other community agencies are working really hard to address the problem of food insecurity, they also face a number of challenges. One of the biggest challenge they face is running out of funding.