Everybody Eats Statement on Food Systems and Recovery from COVID-19
Background
Everybody Eats is a Collective Impact process that engages leaders from across public, private, and community sectors to work together to build a more vibrant food system in Newfoundland and Labrador. Building on two years of intensive public consultation between 2015-2017, led by a multi-agency leadership team with secretariat support from Food First NL, Everybody Eats works to bring together diverse voices to build solutions and buy-in on complex food system challenges. In 2018, a public forum helped select three immediate priorities for Everybody Eats:
The Cost Of Food & Household Food Insecurity
Community Food Self-Sufficiency
Local Food Promotion
All of these areas of focus have been deeply impacted by the ongoing pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed many vulnerabilities and structural inequalities within our food system, inadequacies within social programs, and injustices within our society. This crisis has affected everyone in Newfoundland and Labrador. However, its impacts have been most deeply felt by those experiencing poverty, especially women, Indigenous peoples, seniors, people with disabilities, and rural residents.
Before the COVID-19 crisis, Newfoundland and Labrador had one of the highest rates of food insecurity in Canada, at 14.7% of households (marginal: 4.7%, moderate: 6.8%, severe: 3.3%). Due to significant job losses and reduced working hours caused by COVID-19, this number is rising. Food insecurity rates across Canada, last measured at 12.7% nationally, are expected to double by the end of the year.
In addition, the COVID-19 crisis has exposed many vulnerabilities in Canada’s industrial food system. These include an over-reliance on imports and exports (especially for fruits and vegetables), centralized abattoirs and food processing plants, and long-distance food transportation—all of which were greatly affected by border and labour disruptions. In Newfoundland and Labrador, 90% of fruits and vegetables are imported, there is no federally inspected abattoir, and long transportation distances are further complicated by ferry and fly-in services.
At the same time, there are many sources of strength and community resilience to be found within Newfoundland and Labrador’s food system. There is a vibrant and innovative group of primary and secondary producers with new entrants emerging regularly. There is a network (much-expanded during the pandemic) of grassroots organizations who have made food security part of their mandates. There is an intense connection with traditional foodways and a level of access to wild foods that many jurisdictions lack. The province is small enough to make collective action on our challenges feasible, and public awareness of food security is high.
As Newfoundland and Labrador moves into recovery from COVID-19, there is an opportunity for the recovery process to strengthen our food systems, combat food insecurity, and build a more sustainable future. Food production, processing, and distribution is well-placed to be a major driver of economic growth and diversification in both rural and urban settings. Drawing on the many conversations that have happened around many Everybody Eats tables, we envision a recovery that supports local food systems by:
Strengthening social safety nets
and closing gaps that lead to households being unable to access adequate, healthy, culturally appropriate food
Encouraging young people’s participation in food production
particularly young women whose participation is often undervalued and not fairly compensated
Protecting existing agricultural lands
and streamlining access to land for new entrants
Enabling access to wild food
through education and the reduction of regulatory barriers
Working toward a more accessible and equitable fishery
by removing barriers that make it difficult to participate in the food fishery, improving direct sales policies and practices, and developing a succession plan for the next generation of fishers
Supporting community-based programs
that deliver the vast majority of food security support programming, including both emergency food aid programs and community infrastructure such as gardens, community freezers, and bulk buying clubs
Including food security within emergency response planning
so that future crises benefit from a formalized and organized response that goes beyond the scale community organizations can take on
Enabling aging in place
by facilitating seniors’ access to affordable, healthy, local, and culturally appropriate food
Working towards a national school food program
by investing in infrastructure and pilot programs
Supporting small-scale food production
including raising animals, by reviewing and streamlining food safety policies and practices, resourcing the creation of additional secondary processing infrastructure, and working with municipalities to ensure their policies enable these activities
Taken together, these measures would enable our food systems to play a major role in our province’s economic recovery from the impacts of COVID-19, while also strengthening many critical community networks of support and care.
Signatories
These priorities have been endorsed by the following Everybody Eats members:
Fishing For Success
A social enterprise with a mission to engage us all in the shared human heritage of fishing
Food First NL
Food First NL works with communities in Newfoundland & Labrador to ensure everyone has access to affordable, healthy, and culturally appropriate food.