“Okra, longbean, different
kinds of squash;” Anan Lololi, Founder and Executive Director of the
Afri-Can Food Basket, is listing off vegetables that are hard to find in Toronto.
“Callaloo. Have you ever tasted callaloo? Cook it with olive oil and
garlic. It’s the most amazing leaf vegetable you could eat.”
Callaloo grows like a weed in Canada, but is hard to find in grocery stores
and is expensive if you do find it. According to Lololi, this is because the
majority of foods Ontario farmers grow are culturally specific to Europe.
Callaloo, on the other hand, has roots in Africa.
The Afri-Can Food Basket (AFB) was founded to address food security in the
African Canadian community in Toronto and now works with several additional
communities in the city including Polish, Russian, Persian, South Asian, Chinese,
and Latin American. “These are the most vulnerably food insecure communities,”
notes Lololi. Despite their need, however, these communities are often missed
by traditional food security organizations.
“Food is so connected to culture,” explains Lololi.
A food security campaign targeting the ‘mainstream’ culture might
fail to reach large sectors of Toronto’s diverse population since, “people
use different food for different reasons in different countries.” For
example, in most parts of the world people consume only ripe bananas,but in
Jamaica, green bananas are used to make a special soup.
By working directly with affected communities, the AFB is drawing on the tremendous
knowledge and energy of the city’s diverse cultures, to improve food
security and strengthen neighbourhoods.
This past summer, as part of the Community Food Animators
Project, the AFB animated gardens in three communities. “The Peanut
Garden” was one of these gardens. Located near Don Mills and Sheppard
at the Lutheran Advent Church, the Peanut Garden’s 45 plots quickly
filled up with vegetables from all over the world.
The majority of people involved in the garden were recent immigrants from
Iran, as well as others from Southeast Asia and China. The variety of the
plots reflected the diversity of the surrounding community.
One boy whose grandfather had farmed peanuts in China planted peanuts his
father had brought with him when he immigrated, another gardener planted okra,
and another callaloo. One Iranian woman sewed an entire bed of mobkeh with
seeds her brother sent from Lebanon. Mobkeh costs $7.99 a pound here in Canada
as it is normally imported. By drying and freezing her Canadian harvest she
saved money for other necessities.
These gardens play a critical role in food security, especially in low income
new immigrant communities, explains Lololi. The gardens not only provide people
with an opportunity to grow food from their home countries, but also provide
an affordable, healthy source of fresh vegetables.
Once involved, it doesn’t take participants long to recognize the value
of a community garden. The trick, notes Lololi, is to ensure that they are
involved from the outset. “The first step is to call a meeting,”
he says, taking care that the flyers are written in a language that community
members will understand.
Once a group of interested individuals have been identified, the AFB helps
them find the resources they need, including community garden training programs,
technical advice, and help with garden administration. It doesn’t take
long before a community of gardeners have taken charge and are producing beautiful
vegetables for themselves, their family and their community. That’s
when it’s time for the AFB to move on, says Lololi, “As they get
it going, we move onto the next community.”
