About Black Food Sovereignty Toronto
WHO WE ARE
Birthed out of conversations with the community in 2019, Black Food Sovereignty Toronto (BFST) was established by The Afri-Can FoodBasket—a Toronto Non-profit organization that has been pushing the needle in Black food sovereignty since 1995—in partnership with the City of Toronto, to collectively help advance food issues impacting Black communities in the GTA while confronting anti-Black racism.
Under the umbrella of Black Food Sovereignty Toronto (BFST), the Working Group and our partners represent Black farmers, restaurateurs, dieticians, nutritionists, importers and more to get resources for their communities, empowering them to become more food secure, and ultimately, more food sovereign.
The call for Black food sovereignty represents a new strategic phase in asserting our self- determination, addressing the structural roots of anti-Black racism, and promoting our health and wellbeing. This will be our collective effort.
BLACK-LED, BLACK-MANDATED, BLACK-SERVING
BLACK FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
Black food sovereignty is the right of people of African descent to access healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Food sovereignty is, therefore, a holistic, healthy and sustainable approach for communities to address chronic food insecurity.
Why is Black food sovereignty a priority in Toronto?
36.6%
of Black Canadian children
are food insecure
Over a third of Black Canadian
children are food insecure compared
to 12% of white Canadian children
300,000
Black Torontonian children
are food insecure
More than one-quarter of Black households in Toronto are food insecure, representing about 300,000 children alone
The History of Black Food Sovereignty Toronto
1995
2019
2021
The Afri-Can FoodBasket started as a community cooperative that was volunteer driven.
Black Food Sovereignty Toronto was established by The Afri-Can FoodBasket in partnership with the City of Toronto.
The Black Food Sovereignty plan was released by the City of Toronto with input from the community conversations that BFST hosted.