>MAKING FOOD BANKS APPROACHABLE, PLEASANT PLACES TO VISIT
When he took the reins at The Stop on Davenport Road, Nick Saul turned the idea of a food bank on its head. By creating an attractive, inclusive place that serves up education and camaraderie as well as healthy, delicious meals, Saul reduced the stigma around visiting a food bank, casting The Stop in the role of a community hub akin to a library or community centre. Last year, working with funding from the Toronto Community Foundation, Saul left The Stop to found Community Food Cen- tres Canada (CFCC). Its mission is to spread The Stop’s way of doing things across the country. With new Community Food Centre partners in Perth and Stratford, and centres opening soon in Regent Park, Winnipeg and Dartmouth, the vision is catching on. “I’m biased, but I think Toronto has led in many respects,” says Saul, “but across the country I’ve discovered there’s a lot of activity on the food front that needs to be unlocked with resources.” Rosalyn Morrison, vice-president of community initiatives at Toronto Community Foundation, says CFCC is leading a nation- al conversation on food security, nutrition and community inclusion. “This is a story about what’s possible, how we can come up with really good ideas and scale them up to a national level,” she says. Providing food to those in dire straits remains at the core of CFCC’s mission. And that’s why Saul says that an increase in social assistance rates would be the biggest game-changer for the organization. Housing costs eat up a larger and larger share of welfare, leaving people with little more than transit fare left in their pockets after they’ve paid rent. An increase of $100 a month for food would go a long way. “The rates don’t reflect what it costs to live,” Saul says. Saul would also like to see a national school nutrition program; Canada remains one of the only rich countries without one. Following the CFCC philosophy, there should be no means test associated with such a program and no stigma attached to it. “It should be universal that you get a really good meal or a really good snack every time you want in the school,” he says.