Toronto Anchor Team Impact Report

Connecting Community with Culturally Responsive Food: Better Health Outcomes through Onsite Growing and Food on Prescription

In Northwest Toronto, Jane and Finch is a neighbourhood of racialized, working class residents experiencing precarious work, high costs to access food, and limited growing space. In the context of health inequity, many residents experience poorer health outcomes including increased rates of chronic illness. In addition to this, systemic racism contributes to poverty, over-policing, and negative impacts to mental health.

The Black Creek Community Health Centre (BCCHC) has a strong record of leadership in providing care and services for their community, as well as fostering important spaces for gathering, training, advocacy, and during the pandemic, such as mobilizing pop-up vaccination clinics.

This team deepened their work to repair trust and built stronger community connections, as they developed sustainable initiatives that reduced food insecurity and poverty. With a mandate from Cheryl Prescod, Executive Director of the BCCHC, they recognized that “lack of access to healthy food is one example of the different systemic and physical barriers preventing people in underserved communities from achieving optimal health.”

Their participation in the Nourish Anchor Cohort was part of their journey to look at the “radical opportunities for what can be possible when we prioritize care for those most in need, such as our seniors and essential workers.”

Reach:
Jane and Finch is home to a population of ~52,000 residents in a high density, low-income neighbourhood. The work of Black Creek Community Health Centre to take a more integrated approach to nutrition and wellbeing, as well as their support to increase the number of food production and green spaces, increased access to healthy food for this diverse community.

The Toronto Team Worked On:

1) Setting up a container garden in Sheridan Mall, which will be run by a community animator

Providing food prescriptions for families experiencing food insecurity, with fresh produce boxes to be given out over a four month period

Read the final Toronto Anchor Team Impact Report here.