Social Innovation Bootcamp: Tackling Food Security

March 05, 2019
Social Innovation Bootcamp: Tackling Food Security

Mara Shaw, Executive Director, Loving Spoonful

Social Innovation Bootcamp: Tackling Food Security

Group of participants working on the household challenge

Social Innovation Bootcamp: Tackling Food Security

Team presentation

On March 2nd, the Centre for Social Impact hosted its annual Social Innovation Bootcamp. Smith students, as well as Kingston community members, had the opportunity to engage with this year’s theme: Tackling Food Security. Speakers included Mara Shaw, Executive Director, Loving Spoonful, Andy Fisher, author of Big Hunger, Professor Monica LaBarge, as well as Queen’s graduate student Amanda Moraes. Topics ranged from the impact of income on food insecurity, the contributing factors to giving, and the medicalization of hunger. The bootcamp also featured a chance for participants to create their own presentations defining food insecurity, and all the ways that we can make a difference.

Below are a few of my key takeaways from attending the Bootcamp. 

We are solving hunger on a temporary basis

One of the best volunteer experiences I have had is working with a food bank. As Certificate candidates and kind people, I am sure many of you can share that sentiment. Volunteering gives you as much, if not more, than what you give to the organisations which receive your time. It makes you feel good when you do good.

However, food banks have grown into a band-aid industry. As guest speaker Andy Fisher, author of Big Hunger, can attest to. The philanthropic idea for food banks found its way to North America in the 1980s during a time of economic recession, and has served well in times of emergency. However, food banks have done little to end hunger on a long-term basis. 

Due to unaddressed factors that contribute to chronic poverty, many families who rely on food banks become dependant on their services. While we have it in our minds that these facilities are only used in rare periods of emergency – when people are on the verge of getting back on their feet – the harsh reality is that most people don’t have access to the resources required to stop needingfood banks.

Poverty drives hunger. While private organisations and altruistic volunteers are doing their best to transfer food between channels in order to prevent full-stop starvation, the fact is that food banks have allowed the government to take a step back.

We all want to put a stop to the need for food banks. So why are we still attacking the symptoms of poverty – the rampant hunger and food insecurity – rather than the deeper problem of poverty as a whole?

Take the high road vs. the low road to profitability

It is easy to place the non-profit sector and private businesses in two separate bubbles. One does good, and the other makes money. But that is changing rapidly, as proven by the existence of the world of social impact. 

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are becoming a fact of doing business. No company can survive unless it makes an active effort to carry out CSR. Yet, to complicate things further, it is so easy for consumers to see through empty CSR tactics. As part of Andy Fisher’s talk, we were shown a video by Kellogg’s illustrating a US promotion. The idea was that if you bought a selected Kellogg’s product, that one meal would be given to Feeding America. On paper, that sounds like a good idea, but we are all quick to jump on the emptiness of the gesture. 

One person noticed fine print at the end of the video stating the cost of one meal was only $0.10, merely a small fraction of the profit margin that would have already been made. Another pointed out the irony that, in order to attack food insecurity, Kellogg’s was pushing consumers to buy some of the unhealthiest products on store shelves. 

Believe me when I say that it is difficult to do CSR right. 

Effective CSR is a matter of integrating ethical practices into your business’ operations. While their advertisement missed the mark, Kellogg’s is doing a wonderful job at linking their food products to the issue of hunger. Companies like Ivory Ella have taken it a step further, selling elephant-theme marched where a majority of profits go to actually saving those elephants.

You can do it, too. In fact, the world would look a lot better if you did.

Don’t be afraid to address the uncomfortable causes of hunger

As Mara Shaw, Executive Director of Loving Spoonful, pointed out: it would be a lot easier to deal with food insecurity politically if its main driver wasn’t income. Up there with issues of race and gender, class divisions are a topic that would make anyone squirm in their seats.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about it. In fact, we don’t really have the option to avoid talking about it any longer. 

Have you ever been in a grocery store and seen the back of a shelf? Probably not, because there is no shortage of merchandise – there is no shortage of food. Food insecurity, and so much else that makes it difficult to live in Canada, is a symptom of being near poverty. Many Canadians have to make the choice, sometimes even daily, between being able to pay rent or being able to eat dinner. That might leave a sick feeling in your stomach, somehow even more so if it’s not a problem that you’ve had to face.

However, the sooner that we address the issue the sooner that we can begin to truly tackle hunger. As future business leaders, and (hopefully) politically active citizens, we need to use our voices to fight for those movements that attack poverty. This means speaking out about basic income, a higher minimum wage, and holding corporations accountable for ensuring that their employees can actually afford to buy the things that they are selling & manufacturing.

Be loud. Be annoying. Don’t back down.

Thank you to Mara Shaw and to our guest speakers, as well as the amazing team at the Centre for Social Impact for your efforts in making this incredible event possible!

Written by: Aysha Tabassum, BCom '22