Social Innovation / en U of T Scarborough collaborates with local community centre on culturally relevant food security /news/u-t-scarborough-collaborates-local-community-centre-culturally-relevant-food-security <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T Scarborough collaborates with local community centre on culturally relevant food security</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/_CK12575-story.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ftHLiNB7 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-05/_CK12575-story.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=EPMpKyzq 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-05/_CK12575-story.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=9m_B1aNw 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/_CK12575-story.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ftHLiNB7" alt="woman tending to plants in one of the greenhouses at Centre for Immigrant and Community Services in Scarborough"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>siddiq22</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-05-24T09:59:36-04:00" title="Wednesday, May 24, 2023 - 09:59" class="datetime">Wed, 05/24/2023 - 09:59</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>The Centre for Immigrant and Community Services in Scarborough is growing 26 kinds of vegetables in its greenhouse for use in its food bank (photo by Christopher Katsarov Luna)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alexa-battler" hreflang="en">Alexa Battler</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/community-engagement" hreflang="en">Community Engagement</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/community-partnership" hreflang="en">Community Partnership</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/food-security" hreflang="en">Food Security</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/social-innovation" hreflang="en">Social Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">U of T Scarborough</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">The Centre for Immigrant and Community Services has been working with the&nbsp;Culinaria Research Centre&nbsp;to examine how the pandemic impacted food systems</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In addition to the usual canned and dry goods available at their food bank, Scarborough's <a href="http://www.cicscanada.com/en/">Centre for Immigrant and Community Services</a> (CICS) also grows 26 different kinds of vegetables, served weekly to more than 200 families who visit the centre.&nbsp;</p> <p>The CICS greenhouse and gardens produce about 1,700 pounds of food per year&nbsp;– all donated as part of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cicscanada.com/en/content/98/community-food-program">Sustainable and Accessible for Empowering Communities (SAFE) project</a>.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/_DSC1155.jpg" width="1920" height="1280" alt="a close up of some bush beans being grown in the CICS greenhouse"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>Bush beans and Oregon sugar pod green peas are among the culturally relevant plants growing in the CICS greenhouse (photo by Christopher Katsarov Luna)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>“We've seen more and more people that might have been just above the poverty line are now finding themselves below that line,” says Brian Joyce, director of community services and operations at CICS.</p> <p>“We could see the needs of the populations we were observing – they needed access to food. And over the last year that's just amplified with high inflation and cost of food.”</p> <p>In 2020, CICS opened a pop-up food bank, teaming up with&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/projects/feedingcity/">Feeding City Lab</a>, a research network of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/culinaria/food-studies-university-toronto">Culinaria Research Centre</a>&nbsp;at U of Toronto Scarborough that investigates how the pandemic impacted food systems.</p> <p>The lab surveyed community members and found many were lacking vegetables to make their own cultural dishes. That data helped CICS secure funding for its greenhouse, and identified which vegetables were most needed.</p> <p>“It's not just about food security, but it's about food sovereignty. People are taking charge of how they want their food systems to work. They are bringing their ethnocultural lens to it as well,” says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/culinaria/jo-jayeeta-sharma"><strong>Jo</strong>&nbsp;<strong>Sharma</strong></a>, an associate professor of historical and cultural studies at the Culinaria Research Centre and director of the Feeding City Lab&nbsp;who is cross-appointed to the department for the study of religion and the Asian Institute.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/_DSC3181_resize.jpg" width="1920" height="1278" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>The greenhouse and raised garden beds at CICS (photo by Christopher Katsarov Luna)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Siobhan Bonisteel</strong>, a PhD candidate in environmental science at U of T Scarborough and community partnership representative with the Feeding City Lab, is one of several researchers supporting CICS. She’s using her expertise on community food systems to help the CICS team gather data on the SAFE project’s impact on the food bank and wider community.</p> <p>“Feeding City and CICS are understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in real time,”<strong>&nbsp;</strong>Bonisteel<strong>&nbsp;</strong>says.&nbsp;“Both inform each other and work together to broaden our collective understanding of community food issues, including resiliency to threats such as pandemics.”</p> <div class="align-center"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-oembed-video field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item"><iframe src="/media/oembed?url=https%3A//youtu.be/c-YXZabu3Bo&amp;max_width=0&amp;max_height=0&amp;hash=ymzSjirb9pAM9CMjWM7u4RTMq71hQox6Tkdr9Hscio4" width="200" height="113" class="media-oembed-content" loading="eager" title="Home Grown Solutions"></iframe> </div> </div> <p><br> Joyce says the data will not only help entice funders, but will help illustrate the project as a model for other organizations.&nbsp;It will also guide which new plants the centre tries to grow, as families accessing the food bank represent a range of cultural backgrounds.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We're serving a wide variety of different people and we're introducing them to all these other services at CICS&nbsp;– like settlement services, early years programming and fitness programming that they might not have known about,” Joyce says.</p> <p>The SAFE project also encompasses the centre’s industrial-sized community kitchen, which is used for cooking courses and as a place to share knowledge and build community.</p> <p>The gardens are similarly a place for connection, and Joyce wants to bring in many other local organizations to collaborate. For example, the&nbsp;<a href="https://sachays.ca/about/">South Asian Cultural and Health Association for Youth and Seniors</a>&nbsp;is planting ethno-culturally significant plants for diasporic Asian community members in CICS's raised garden beds.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/_DSC3181.jpg" width="1920" height="1277" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>Austin Boyne, a facilitator at the CICS urban farm, tends to the plants in the greenhouse</em><br> <em>(photo by Christopher Katsarov Luna)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Shathvahi Ramesh</strong>, a fourth-year undergraduate student studying environmental ethics and religion in the Faculty of Arts and Science<span style="font-size: 1rem;">&nbsp;and a former intern with Sharma’s team, worked with the Feeding City Lab to connect CICS with the <a href="https://mfrc.org/malvern-urban-farm/">Malvern Urban Farm</a>,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">which grows culturally significant plants in one of Scarborough’s hydro fields. Community farmers are growing seeds in the greenhouse to later transfer them to their gardens.</span></p> <p>Ramesh says community organizations are often in an ideal position to help one another&nbsp;– but just might not know it. U of T Scarborough alumna&nbsp;<strong>Amanda Wedge</strong>&nbsp;has recently taken over as the co-ordinator for the&nbsp;<a href="http://scarboroughfoodnetwork.ca/">Scarborough Food Network</a>, which&nbsp;aims to bring a range of local organizations and stakeholders (including the Feeding City Lab) together, with monthly meetings dedicated to updates.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It helps folks feel like they're not one lone entity just fighting their own fight or alone in their work. Together is always better,” Ramesh says. "It also helps build institutional memory.”</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-add-new-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Add new story tags</div> <div class="field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/culinaria-research-centre-feeding-city-lab" hreflang="en">Culinaria Research Centre; Feeding City Lab</a></div> </div> </div> Wed, 24 May 2023 13:59:36 +0000 siddiq22 301796 at The Agency fosters social innovation at U of T /news/agency-fosters-social-innovation-u-t <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Agency fosters social innovation at U of T </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Keita.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Pb-gj0lm 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Keita.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=p9W7uuY9 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Keita.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=UvIViEEK 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Keita.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Pb-gj0lm" alt="Keita Demming"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-11-18T16:23:35-05:00" title="Friday, November 18, 2016 - 16:23" class="datetime">Fri, 11/18/2016 - 16:23</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Keita Demming, executive director of The Agency, a U of T social innovation lab (photo by Romi Levine)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation" hreflang="en">Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/oise" hreflang="en">OISE</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/toronto" hreflang="en">Toronto</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-school-management" hreflang="en">Rotman School of Management</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/social-innovation" hreflang="en">Social Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/mars" hreflang="en">MaRS</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Ƶ graduate student <strong>Tricia Jose </strong>is helping Canadians learn to save money so they can reduce financial vulnerability.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://vicislabs.com/">Vicis</a>, the financial technology company she founded with&nbsp;U of T students <strong>David St. Bernard </strong>and<strong> Christopher Villegas-Cho</strong>, has its roots in the social innovation movement. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“Social innovation means you’re making an impact beyond the bottom line,” says Jose, who is studying biomedical engineering.</p> <p>“The really exciting thing is that our generation is really focused on impact and brands with purpose. More and more people want to give back. They want to do things that serve a greater purpose.”</p> <h3><a href="/news/u-ts-team-vicis-heads-hult-prize-regionals-e-commerce-street-vendors">Read more about Vicis</a></h3> <p><a href="http://theagencyuoft.ca/">The Agency</a>&nbsp;– one of U of T’s social innovation labs – wants to help students like Jose, faculty and staff look at ways to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.</p> <p>The Agency will be hosting a&nbsp;<a href="http://theagencyuoft.ca/conference/">free conference&nbsp;</a>on Nov.&nbsp;21 at U of T's Hart House for anyone interested in getting involved in social innovation initiatives. Speakers include&nbsp;Ilse Treurnicht, CEO MaRS Discovery District, and <strong><a href="/news/four-u-t-students-earn-2014-top-20-under-20-award">Kouroush Houshmand</a></strong>.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Let’s make Ƶ the place where the world comes to for social innovation – that’s a dream people can get on board with,” says&nbsp;<strong>Keita Demming</strong>, The Agency’s executive director.&nbsp;</p> <p>Demming says the key to creating programs that promote change is to bring together people from different backgrounds and disciplines.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It’s called the Agency because it’s meant to be a travel agency – you come, and you decide your journey,” says Demming, who just completed his PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.</p> <p>“As we meet new students, students can pick up ‘travellers’ that speak different languages – so geography versus computer science, arts and science with literature.”</p> <h3><a href="http://theagencyuoft.ca/about/">Read more about The Agency</a></h3> <p>Universities are well-suited to foster social innovation, says <strong>Ann Armstrong</strong>, social enterprise initiative director at U of T's Rotman School of Management.</p> <p>“We can use our research findings to imagine new ways of living better lives and then engaging the community to experiment&nbsp;based on evidence, new models of social impact,” she says.</p> <p>And U of T can lead the charge, says Demming.&nbsp;</p> <p>“What U of T offers is a wealth of experience, a wealth of capacity around going deep on problems and saying, how can we bring that to the world? We have some skills around commercializing ideas already,” he says.</p> <p>“What strengths can U of T leverage when we address things like climate change, equity, unequal distribution of wealth and poverty?”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 18 Nov 2016 21:23:35 +0000 Romi Levine 102438 at