Rethinking Food Charity: A Community Conversation

Rethinking Food Charity: A Community Conversation was a year-long process to reimagine food charity in Newfoundland and Labrador. Throughout the process, we consulted with People with Lived and Living Experience of food insecurity, food charity staff and volunteers, and other informed citizens through surveys, focus groups, and a large in-person gathering.

The process wrapped up in early 2023, culminating in a final report, “Rethinking Food Charity in Newfoundland and Labrador: Results, Reflections, and Recommendations 2022–23.” The report summarizes what we heard and puts forward 23 recommendations for the food charity sector, government, and systems-level organizations.

In mid-July, 2023, we hosted a webinar that went in depth on our Rethinking Food Charity recommendations. The webinar recording is now available on YouTube.

The landscape of charitable food programs has changed dramatically since January 2020. Between “Snowmageddon,” the COVID-19 pandemic, and a rapidly increasing cost-of-living, food programs have regularly shifted and adapted to changing circumstances. They are also experiencing an overwhelming growth in demand as increasing numbers of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are experiencing food insecurity.

These changes and challenges created an urgent need for honest conversations about the future of food charity in the province. We launched Rethinking Food Charity to begin those conversations.

The process evolved over three stages. During each stage, we wanted to learn about:

• People’s experiences with food charity.

• How the sector can serve people better.

• Pathways to food charity not being needed at all.

Stage One: Surveys

We began the Rethinking Food Charity process in the spring of 2022 by asking for input on two surveys. These surveys helped to shape our next steps and make sure that our conversations were as far-reaching and relevant as possible.

One survey was for volunteers, staff, and board members at charitable food programs (i.e. food program providers). The other survey was for People with Lived and Living Experience of food insecurity (i.e. food program users or potential users).

We received a fantastic response, with 63 responses from food program providers and 495 responses from food program users/potential users.

Our two survey reports provide more information about survey design and a summary of the data that we collected.

Read the report on survey data from food program providers (PDF).

Read the report on survey data from food program users or potential users (PDF).

Stage Two: Regional Conversations and Focus Groups

During the second stage of Rethinking Food Charity, we hosted community conversations and focus groups with food program providers and People with Lived and Living Experience of food insecurity and poverty.

During the summer of 2022, we held five regional and province-wide conversations with staff and volunteers from food programs to better understand what’s happening on the ground, what’s working, and what needs to change. Then, during the early fall, we worked with organizations across the province to hold nine group conversations with community members with Lived and Living Experience of food insecurity. During those conversations, participants shared their expertise on the impacts of food access challenges in their community, experiences with existing food programs, and recommendations for improving local food programs and food access more generally.

We are thankful for everyone who took the time to share their expertise and experiences with us. Rethinking Food Charity would not be possible without them.

More information about what we learned during these regional conversations and focus groups is available in our final report, “Rethinking Food Charity in Newfoundland and Labrador: Results, Reflections, and Recommendations 2022–23” (PDF).

Stage Three: The Gathering

The final stage of Rethinking Food Charity was to hold a large in-person Gathering for anyone interested in improving food access and charitable food programming in Newfoundland and Labrador. On November 26, 2022, nearly 60 people gathered together in St. John’s to learn and share ideas about the future of food charity in the province.

Read the Rethinking Food Charity Gathering Summary (PDF) for an overview of what was discussed and shared during the event.

Presentation recordings from the Gathering are now available on our YouTube Channel. Session descriptions and the Gathering’s full agenda are available on the event page.

Additional information about the Rethinking Food Charity process is available in our final report, “Rethinking Food Charity in Newfoundland and Labrador: Results, Reflections, and Recommendations 2022–23” (PDF).

We have a limited supply of printed copies of Rethinking Food Charity in Newfoundland and Labrador: Results, Reflections, and Recommendations 2022–23. To request a printed copy, please email rethinkfood@foodfirstnl.ca or call and leave a message at (709) 237-4026

Contact

If you have any questions about Rethinking Food Charity: A Community Conversation, please reach out to Program Assistant, Madi, at rethinkfood@foodfirstnl.ca, or call and leave a message at (709) 237-4026

To request any of the resources on this page in an alternate format, please contact our Communications Coordinator at hello@foodfirstnl.ca