12. The Certificate in Food Security: Teaching Agents of Change

Abstract

The Certificate in Food Security at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) was the world’s first university-level program dedicated to food security as a comprehensive, interdisciplinary field of study. Since its launch in 2003, the Certificate has provided flexible, fully online education designed to build food security literacy and prepare students to become agents of change across diverse professional sectors. This chapter traces the Certificate’s origins, evolution, and enduring impact over more than two decades. It examines the institutional partnerships, pedagogical innovations, and collaborative curriculum development that enabled the creation of a pioneering educational program grounded in the Centre for Studies in Food Security’s five dimensions of food security. The chapter explores how the curriculum has evolved to incorporate emerging issues including urban agriculture, Indigenous food systems, gender, and food policy while maintaining a strong commitment to experiential, community-engaged, and internationally informed learning. It also assesses the program’s outcomes, demonstrating how graduates have applied food security knowledge in professional practice, community organizations, public policy, and graduate education. The chapter argues that the Certificate’s success stems from its integration of interdisciplinary scholarship, flexible online delivery, place-based experiential learning, and strong community connections. As food insecurity and food systems challenges continue to evolve, the Certificate provides an enduring model for higher education that builds professional capacity while cultivating informed practitioners who can advance more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food systems.

Acknowledgements and Author Notes

James Kuhns and Reg Noble contributed substantially to this chapter. Rod MacRae and Andrea Moraes also provided input, along with the chapter’s reviewers, Cecilia Rocha and Mustafa Koc. A longer version of this paper is available from the author upon request at jnasr@torontomu.ca.

I – Introduction

The Certificate in Food Security (FSC) at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) is a pioneering higher-education program. Launched in 2003, the Certificate was the world’s first university-level program dedicated to studying food security as a systemic concern. Developed by researchers at the Centre for Studies in Food Security (CSFS), it used the CSFS 5As (see Chapter 1 in this volume) to plan its course palette. The FSC was designed to cover both Canadian and international aspects of food security, and to be offered fully online.

For over 20 years, the Certificate has provided applied and professional training to help students (Ryerson University, 2002, pp. 9-10):

• Articulate food security and its relationship to food systems, food policy, and health promotion concepts;
• Assess and monitor the food security situation of individuals, households, communities or nations;
• Identify the forces contributing to food security and insecurity at an individual, household, community or national level;
• Identify best practices for food security within Canada and other nations;
• Design effective and integrated programs, services or policies that contribute to food security;
• Evaluate the effectiveness of food security programs and policies.

A key objective of the program has been for graduates to bring food security thinking into a wide range of professional sectors. Food security connects to health, education, social well-being, the living environment, the economy, and, of course, food systems. Policies and practices in these and other sectors affect people’s food security, so FSC graduates bring food security thinking to bear on their professions and their own lives.

This chapter explores the development, evolution, and impact of this pioneering certificate program. It begins (section II) by examining the Certificate’s origins, including the motivations behind its creation, the institutional context in which it emerged, and the collaborative efforts that enabled its development and launch. Section III traces the program’s pedagogical evolution and outcomes over more than two decades, examining its collaborative course-development process, evolving curriculum, online and experiential teaching approaches, and patterns of student participation and achievement. Section IV considers the main features that have shaped the Certificate, including its integration of international and locally grounded learning, place-based experiential education, stable yet precariously employed teaching core, interactions between adult learners and degree students, and emphasis on building food security literacy and professional capacity. Finally, section V considers the Certificate’s enduring relevance and future possibilities in a changing educational and food security landscape, including opportunities for new areas of study, more flexible modes of learning, renewed partnerships, and greater institutional support for experiential education.

II – Origins of the Certificate: Motivations and Motivators

Since its inception in 1995, the CSFS has earned a reputation as an academic hub of research and dissemination on food security. Rising interest in food security courses among Ryerson students in the late 1990s and among members of community organizations led CSFS members to explore offering courses that could lead to a degree. Although the university policies did not allow research centres and institutes to offer a degree, a unique partnership between the School of Nutrition, the Chang School of Continuing Education and the CSFS led to the creation of the Certificate in Food Security. The Office of International Affairs also supported the Certificate’s internationalization.

Several factors drove the creation of the new Certificate. The original 2002 proposal expressed clearly the logic for this initiative: “Because the solutions to food security involve so many sectors and people with so many backgrounds, there is a significant need to increase food security ‘literacy’ across many fields, institutions and workplaces” (Ryerson University, 2002, p. 3). Furthermore, “as the subject matter of food security is both international and interdisciplinary, the Certificate will prepare students for professional practice that has application in Canada and overseas” (Ryerson University, 2002, p. 3). This priority of internationalizing the curriculum required teaching modalities that could reach students worldwide.

The Certificate idea also fit well with Ryerson University’s new academic mandate: internationalizing the curriculum, combining new research and teaching opportunities, linking community experience to the academic community, and developing new relationships with international agencies and funders (Ryerson University, 2002, pp. 3-4).

The Food Security Certificate emerged from the foundations of a dynamic food justice environment in Toronto, one of the pioneer cities in anti-hunger activism and political organizing (see Chapter 1 in this volume). Ryerson University was well positioned for remote teaching, having offered distance education since the early 1970s, with some internet-based learning launched as early as the mid-1990s. Its Distance Education Unit launched its first fully internet-based courses in 2000, rapidly becoming “the dominant mode for Ryerson distance courses” (Malinski & MacRae, 2006, p. 38). The university became a leader in the fast-growing online education globally, with an explicitly internationalizing mandate – distance education grew from less than 800 a year in 2000 to more than 8,000 registrations a year in just three years (NEXUS 2004, p. 2). The fully online Certificate was thus anchored in a university well established in online education by then.

Still, launching the FSC had challenges “because of the complexity of creating a new certificate program, designing a full suite of new courses that didn’t previously exist, and constructing the administrative infrastructure to properly support and market the certificate” (Malinski & MacRae, 2006, p. 38). It was these three dimensions that made it especially complex, relative to other online teaching at Ryerson University – and made it particularly innovative on the world stage. Online teaching was relatively new at the time, and the proposal promised an entire accredited program built from scratch, with new instructors, an unfamiliar teaching modality, global outreach, and a focus on new understanding of global food challenges and solutions.

The Certificate’s early success was enabled by collaboration among the university’s four partnering units, as well as support from individuals well positioned to develop and deliver this new program. Some of the key members who helped establish the Centre for Studies in Food Security also supported putting the Certificate structure and the set of courses that would form the core of the curriculum in place.^[1]. Two key actors played central roles in enabling the Certificate in a relatively short period of time: Rod MacRae and Richard Malinski.

In 2000, Rod MacRae was hired as the first academic coordinator of the Food Security Certificate, leading its planning, development and implementation (until stepping down in 2007).^[2]. With a background in food and agriculture policy and experience working as a consultant on food security and sustainable agriculture in the 1990s, Rod MacRae also brought experience as the first coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council. Richard Malinski had been Ryerson’s Chief Librarian in the previous decade, and served as Director of the Distance Education Unit within the Division of Continuing Education. The timing of the CSFS’s pursuit of an educational side of its activities was fortuitous. The first coordinator of the world’s most prominent food policy council had stepped down just as the Chief Librarian of Ryerson was charged with developing distance education from scattered courses into full programs. MacRae’s subject-matter expertise and Malinski’s interest in creating innovative online programs enabled the Certificate’s relatively fast development and launch.

Once the idea of an online Food Security Certificate as a pedagogical offshoot of the CSFS was established, several steps had to be undertaken before it could be formally approved and development could begin. A team of content experts had to be identified and confirmed as capable of developing and delivering the comprehensive content of the newly recognized concept of ‘food security’. Fortunately, content experts with varied disciplinary backgrounds (and domestic and international experience) were already collaborating within the CSFS. This team confirmed the Certificate project’s feasibility.

With a focus on urban food security, the Certificate’s overarching aim was defined as “increasing the number of change agents to work on food security issues, both domestically and internationally” (Malinski & MacRae, 2006, p. 41). The foundation course launched online in September 2003, and the full set of courses, including electives, was offered by 2006.

III – Pedagogical Evolution and Outcomes

Since its inception, the program’s academic home has been the School of Nutrition and, within the School, the Centre for Studies in Food Security. A Curriculum Committee oversees curriculum development and other pedagogical matters, and an external Program Advisory Committee provides “input on the relevance of the program’s goals and course content to the wider community it serves” (Ryerson University, 2013, p.29). A pair of instructors developed each of the initial core courses in the Certificate, and subject matter experts developed or redeveloped later courses, with support from Chang School learning specialists. Many of the courses have also been co-taught. This has given students access to even more diverse instructors, as each brings different competences and real-world experience to the courses.

Malinski and MacRae (2006, p. 46) observe:

The multi-level team approach seems to work very well for Certificate development. While this group has a variety of backgrounds, the members hold complementary, if not similar, visions of the Certificate. […] There is vibrant discussion and consensus building without a blinkered approach or brow beating. This means that […] the different skills and abilities of the team members are valued and are seen as contributory.

Along similar lines, the conclusion of the 2013 Certificate program review “demonstrated the value of placing a strong emphasis on the design of the online learning environment,” which resulted from “an extraordinary collaborative effort,” as attracting and retaining students “requires that they have a rich and rewarding learning experience” (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 35).

The goal of the Certificate’s courses is “to provide graduates with a suite of skills and knowledge in food security to add to their current skill set” (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 5). Given the wide variety of student interests, disciplines, and careers, as well as different socio-economic, cultural, and geographic contexts, the program recognizes a range of learning styles and has developed a variety of teaching modalities over time. Flexibility has been important to accommodate this wide range of students, while still ensuring a common framework and foundation necessary to balance that flexibility.

All Certificate courses go through a rigorous design process from conception to presentation. All design work, from creating new courses to making minor revisions to existing ones, involves the Digital Education Strategies (DES) team. The aim is to create a learner-centred, experiential product focused on personal and professional growth (TMU, 2025a). DES also provides professional development for instructors, innovative learning tools, and support for designing and developing creative ‘learning objects’ (interactive games, question-raising boxes, self-testing, etc.) built into the regular content. A six-stage process with milestones is used for course development and revisions. The course includes modules that embody varied learning objectives, assignments, and purposeful, creative use of technology (TMU, 2025b). All modules must be compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). The library provides access to resources and open education resources (OER) to support financial accessibility.

These principles and processes led to the development of a six-course Certificate, in which three courses are required for all students to build a common foundation, and three other courses are electives to accommodate students’ diverse interests and objectives.

The three foundational (required) courses are the following:

• Food Security Concepts and Principles
• Food Policy and Programs for Food Security
• Applied Research Methods and Evaluation

Students can then choose three electives from a set of offered courses. Beyond courses already available from different departments at Toronto Metropolitan University (such as Sociology of Food and Eating, Nutrition and Health, and Families and Health), some courses were developed specifically as electives for the Certificate. Among those of significant importance, the following can be listed:

• Urban Food Security
• Community Development and Food Security
• Gender and Food Security
• Indigenous Food Systems in Canada

Among the elective courses, Selective Topics in Food Security has allowed students and instructors to explore particular interests. One example was Urban Food Security Policy and Programs – The Case of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Offered a few times over the years, this course gave students the opportunity to learn about the bold and pioneering policies and programs implemented in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Students interacted virtually and asynchronously for several weeks before travelling to that city and spending an intensive week meeting local actors and visiting projects on the ground. Over 50 people participated in this experience through its many offerings, which attracted students not only from Canada, but also from the United States, Germany, Australia, and Vietnam.

Another important set of electives offered in recent years has been in urban agriculture. In fact, alongside the Food Security Certificate, the IDRC, Ryerson University, and the Netherlands-based Resources Centres for Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF) began a conversation about launching a companion online educational program focused on urban agriculture. They crystallized this concept as an Urban Agriculture Course Series consisting of four courses. Joe Nasr at Ryerson University and Marielle Dubbeling from RUAF developed the detailed structure of the Course Series and most of the courses, under the oversight of Academic Coordinator Rod MacRae.

The partnership between RUAF and the Chang School “enabled the program to gain valuable input and expertise from international practitioners in urban agriculture across the world, and this has resulted in a suite of courses that provide a solid foundation in urban agriculture that will allow students to become practitioners and policy makers in this growing and increasingly important area of food security” (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 6). Food security is prominently featured in the urban agriculture courses, employing the guiding principle of the 5As of the CSFS. The first course in the series was launched in Fall 2007. For nearly two decades, dozens of students took urban agriculture courses, though registrations fluctuated over the years. While the Urban Agriculture program was discontinued in 2025, the courses can still be offered through the Selective Topics elective in the Food Security Certificate.

In its first decade, student registrations and graduations rose dramatically. Registrations in the foundation course, Food Security Concepts and Principles, increased from 14 registrants when first offered in Fall 2003 to under 60 in 2006-07, then to over 140 in 2011-2012 (Ryerson University, 2013, pp. 5-6). The other two core courses regularly had over twenty students since 2008, ranging between 33 and 45 in the early 2010s. Around 2008-2012, many public events related to food security and urban agriculture (notably the international Urban Agriculture Summit in 2012)^[3] took place or had a strong connection to Ryerson and the CSFS, leading to increases in student numbers (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 5). Electives stabilized at around 15-20 students per course (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 20). Sixty-six students graduated in the first ten years, while 282 students completed the Certificate between 2019 and 2026 (CSFS, 2026).

About 80 percent of registrations come from continuing education students, many of whom enter the program with prior involvement in community food initiatives or work in a food-related field (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 23-24). The program has attracted many strong students. In one exceptional year (2011), three graduates from the Food Security Certificate were nominated for the Ryerson Gold Medal; one won the award while working in South Africa to help a community address hunger and malnutrition (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 5).

The program has often attracted senior professionals who are working for development agencies such as the UN and USAID (now closed). In 2019, the Chief Food Security Development Officer for USAID and the Chief Food Security Research Officer for USAID joined our program, and both graduated a year later. They found the program so valuable that they commented they would recommend it to their colleagues.

Around four out of ten students taking the foundation course in 2012 – whether undergraduate or post-graduate, whether full-time students or part-time adult learners – indicated that they saw the program in terms of career advancement, as a means to further their professional options and/or complete degrees (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 24). Moreover, many students use the Certificate to transfer course credits to another university or as a ‘stepping stone’ to a graduate degree in a field relevant to food security (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 10).

Student interaction has been vital to enriching the learning experience:

A unique aspect of the program is its delivery online that provides interaction between students on a global scale. Students learn about current real-world situations in food security that would not be available in a classroom in the same way (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 14).

In addition to the impact of the diversity of experiences that is shared among classmates, the outcome of the “shared learning across the internet is the realization of how food connects everyone globally, and actions taken in one place profoundly impact people’s food security a world away. Moreover, the program’s experiential learning encourages ‘learning by doing’ through collaborative group work, real-time sessions, case studies, role-playing in a virtual environment, and practical field-based research studies (Ryerson University, 2013).

IV – Main Features of the Certificate

The Certificate in Food Security’s success can be traced to a few main features, as described below.

The Interaction Between International Learning and Local Grounding

From its inception, the Certificate emphasized its international orientation as central to its mission. Ryerson’s Office of International Affairs was one of four university units that collaborated on the proposal. “Internationalization of the Curriculum” was a major university priority at the time. An international outlook was therefore fundamental to developing and implementing the Certificate. Internationalization was reflected in the global content of the courses and, from early on, in the profiles of instructors and the mix of students (their origins, interests, experiences, and, in many cases, the locations on which they were based).

The program’s international dimension was strengthened by the diverse experiences and knowledge instructors brought to the program. All of them had worked internationally for development agencies, both national and international (e.g., UNDP and FAO). This international experience, combined with local experience of food security issues in Canada and North America, created a well-rounded instructional environment that helped students appreciate that food security is both a global and local issue.

At the same time, the program has consistently prioritized grounding students’ experience and knowledge in local contexts and engaging with local communities and actors. The importance of experiential learning has grown over the years. As Levkoe et al. (2020) describe, food “more than most other subjects invites students to engage in applied thinking, reflection, and action” and, “as a subject of study, can promote connection despite the distance that defines online learning” (p. 446). While the content remains as global as ever, student profiles have gradually become more locally based over the years. Balancing international and local learning has presented challenges, but it has been essential in the pedagogy and content.

Complementing Placeless Pedagogy with Place-Based Experiential Learning

Another strength of the Certificate has been its ability to combine distance learning and a placeless pedagogical approach with a place-based emphasis on experiential learning. From the start, the team who planned the Food Security Certificate sought to offer it fully online, with the commitment to an international orientation. This commitment, however, comes with challenges. The reliance on knowledge-sharing that is delivered (largely asynchronously) in the absence of a physical classroom and a group of students with whom to interact requires ways to address this limitation. Levkoe et al. (2020) suggest that “universities (along with departments and postsecondary institutions) put the necessary resources into online education programs. The support at some institutions has made a tremendous difference in the quality of teaching that can be delivered online.” (p. 446). This is especially critical when experiential learning, community connections, and place-based understanding of food systems are important for food security.

Overall, the reliance on online teaching necessarily comes with a potential constraint on direct engagement. However, while the challenges of ‘placeless pedagogy’ are inherent to online offerings, various teaching methods have been used to address them. These include assignments that involve field visits or interviews, independent study, attending seminars, etc. These approaches try to mitigate this “placelessness” somewhat. Levkoe et al. (2020) go further by stating that “the online setting that allows students to be anywhere in the world provides an opportunity for them to connect what they are learning to their everyday experience. […] Food, as a subject of study, can promote connection despite the distance that defines online learning.”

Precarious but Stable Teaching Core

An important challenge for the Certificate has been the tension coming from the structural reality of continuing education (not specifically online education). In general, continuing education instructors in North America work in a parallel world to full-time faculty members, who enjoy a certain level of job security, much higher pay, and a clear process for potential promotion. By contrast, at Ryerson/TMU, as elsewhere in most North American universities, continuing education instructors must repeatedly apply to teach courses they have taught before (even ones they may have developed in the first place). Even program coordinators (including that of the Food Security Certificate) require regular contract renewal. Unlike tenured or tenure-track faculty members, TMU and other universities make no further commitment to continuing education instructors.

Still, instructors’ precarious situation has not prevented the team from remaining committed to teaching (or coordinating) in this Certificate. The team of instructors has been largely stable for more than two decades, and only two coordinators have directed the program during that time. Behind this is a commitment to the subject at hand: understanding the conditions of food insecurity and identifying ways to address them – a commitment that students who register for the courses overwhelmingly carry as well. The effectiveness and commitment of the instructors have resulted in a stable Certificate, despite their unstable employment context.

Fruitful Interactions Between Adult Learners and Degree Students

From the beginning, even at the development stage of the Certificate, “the choice of a continuing education approach with its focus on adult, part-time learners was preferred. Focusing on this market of adult learners working in related fields was an extension of our belief that food security work is so multidisciplinary that the most rapid capacity building would come from augmenting knowledge among people already working on related measures” (Malinski & MacRae, 2006, p. 39). This also matched the School of Continuing Education’s core mandate.

Nevertheless, the courses developed for the FSC received degree credit and were offered as electives in departments such as Nutrition and Social Work. Over time, more and more undergraduate (mostly full-time) students took Food Security courses. By now, the Certificate is serving two groups at once – and doing so successfully. That mix of adult learners and degree students has expanded the audience and secured the Certificate’s future (particularly during cycles when continuing education numbers went down). Food Security courses are rarely cancelled based on insufficient registration.

More importantly perhaps, many degree students have discovered or reinforced an interest in food issues, an interest that lasted beyond an individual course. Many Nutrition students, for example, ended up registering for and completing the Certificate alongside their degree. In particular, the foundation course acts as a gateway into taking other FSC courses, and ultimately for signing up for the Certificate.^[4] Moreover, in-class interaction with adult learners (many of whom bring prior involvement and knowledge of food issues) has raised the overall bar for discussion and participation.

Improving Food Security Literacy and Professional Skills

Another question featured in the orientation of the Food Security Certificate from its inception has been the central purpose of such a Certificate. Right from the start in 2002, the authors affiliated with the CSFS stated their belief that:

There is a pressing need for education and thoughtful reflection on the issues of food security, and research and practice related to achieving food security. … Because the solutions to food security involve so many sectors and people with so many different backgrounds, there is a significant need to increase food security ‘literacy’ across many fields, institutions and workplaces (Ryerson University, 2002, p. 3).

This distinction between food literacy and food security literacy is vital to clarify what is central to the learning in this program. By taking half a dozen courses, students would become literate in the principles of food security, its relation to food systems, its components, the key actors and drivers that increase food insecurity and those that mitigate it, the challenges in addressing it, etc.

The rationale was for putting in place a university program that would provide “a major infusion of resources and capacity building … to build solutions” to food insecurity and thus send out into the world ‘food-security literate’ citizens. Two central purposes for food-security literacy can be discerned: learning to understand food security and become literate in its own right, and becoming food-security literate to provide accreditation in such a literacy, to become employable as a result of this literacy, and even find a long-term path to a career as a food-security literate professional.

A question has hovered over the past couple of decades regarding these two central purposes. From the start, it was clear that food security literacy is central to this Certificate. Less clear has been the extent to which accreditation, employability and a career-long path would be a central purpose of the Certificate. These considerations are central to continuing education in general. However, in reading four key documents of the Certificate (reports from 2002, 2006, 2013 and 2021), accreditation, employability and career did not come through as keystones for the Certificate.

That said, the intersection between taking courses to gain literacy and gaining work does exist. “Many who come to food security start their careers first in somewhat related areas from which they develop their interest in food security work,” and some see this education as forming part of their professional development (Malinski & MacRae, 2006, p. 39). Often, some degree students take one of the Food Security courses based on a vague interest in the subject, then become so captivated by what they learn that they register for and complete the full Certificate alongside their degree. Moreover, many students who sign up for the Certificate arrive with a prior personal interest in food security while working in other areas, with an explicit intent to use the Certificate and its accreditation as a stepping stone to a new career in food security. Across these scenarios and others, gaining food security literacy and building professional skills (and even careers) intersect strongly. These reflect the highly varied drivers and paths that have led hundreds of students to sign up for individual courses or the entire Certificate.

The combination of gaining literacy and validated competence in food security is also reflected in the large number of students who have pursued graduate education by building on completing FSC courses or the full Certificate. Each year, 25 to 30 students ask the Academic Coordinator for recommendations for graduate programs. The Certificate has become a stepping stone to graduate school, and many universities now know of the program and the high quality of its graduates.^[5] The variety of graduate programs students can enter is broad because the FSC is very broad, from Public Administration and Law to Community Health, Environmental Planning, and Social Work programs. Many students thus see the Certificate (or Certificate courses) as a valuable addition to their curricula, helping in their career development.

The 2013 review of the Food Security Certificate asserted that no doubt “the certificate program is successfully moving towards its goal of increasing food literacy within civil society and the professional sectors in which graduates from the program find employment. However, the situation with our current food system and its associated challenges … are increasing and so the relevance of the program and need for further strengthening of food literacy remains unabated” (Ryerson University, 2013, p. 33). This states clearly how food security literacy and professional skills intersect and require ongoing learning

Certificate Graduates as Informed Individuals and Change Agents

For more than two decades, the FSC has been providing ‘food-security literacy’ learning to hundreds of students from across Canada and around the world. This has resulted in more informed individuals, capacity building for existing or new professionals, and paths towards careers related to the wide world of food systems. The team who put together the initial proposal stated their collective hope that this Certificate would help address the lack of sufficient numbers of trained people “in building both individual capacities and networks that will allow for the creation of policies and processes of agency to work toward the goal of food security” (Ryerson University, 2002, p. 6).

Some graduates from the Certificate have pursued careers that are clearly meant to implement positive change. For many others who took part in Food Security courses, these studies and interactions with instructors and other students have fostered internal growth, leading to career and life changes.

V – Future Possibilities

Interest in food security remains strong, gaining increased attention over the couple of decades since the launch of the Certificate. When this program was proposed to the university, it was noted that 730,000 people in Canada relied on food banks in March 2000 – double the numbers from a decade earlier (Ryerson University, 2002, pp. 4-5). Despite pledges by various governments to end hunger, March 2024 figures showed two million people relying on food banks (Food Banks Canada, 2024). When this chapter was written and copyedited, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched Canada’s first-ever National Food Security Strategy.^[6].

As always, current events continue to shape the Certificate program. At the time of writing in 2026, the world is experiencing escalating trade tensions alongside a growing number of armed conflicts, with rapidly increasing numbers of food-insecure people among those most affected. Nationalism in Canada—once perhaps most visible during major international hockey games—has also intensified, with shoppers paying closer attention to where their food comes from and, in particular, whether it is produced in Canada. Canadians are also showing renewed interest in growing their own food, echoing trends seen during the COVID-19 pandemic (Johnson, 2025; Spring et al., 2022).

When the Certificate was proposed in 2002, it was groundbreaking and unique in many ways. All courses were offered online asynchronously, and competition from programs elsewhere was limited. Now, this delivery format is no longer rare, with different virtual teaching modalities offered to a variety of publics. Many universities and colleges now offer food studies programs.

The designers of the Certificate program saw it as a tool to support community agencies and practitioners in an emerging field (Ryerson University, 2002). From its inception, the combination of online and experiential education provided a unique learning environment. The 2021 program review (Ryerson University, 2021) reiterated the importance of experiential learning and service to the community, highlighting the greater role that is available for the Certificate to play – including the important consideration of helping students build their professional networks. Overall, opportunities to develop greater autonomy in the program through a selection of courses that meet specific interests, independent research/work, and other professional development opportunities that might be available (volunteering; studying abroad…) may enable more adult learners, as well as degree students, to register for the Certificate.

Moreover, a deeper examination of the Certificate’s existing strengths, the CSFS, the Chang School, and the university can point to untapped directions. In 2022, Ryerson University was renamed Toronto Metropolitan University to highlight its urban and cosmopolitan identity, and the Certificate has recognized this urban dimension since its inception. The 2002 document stated that “we have drawn upon Ryerson’s unique role in urban food security work” to develop the proposal, adding that “Ryerson can offer a unique perspective on food security challenges in the urban environment” (Ryerson University, 2002, p. 7). The program thus included a course on urban food security, complemented over the years by other urban-focused initiatives on campus, from the Urban Agriculture Summit to the TMU Urban Farm, to the Carrot City initiative, and so on (see Chapter 11). While the Urban Agriculture Certificate has been discontinued, plans are underway to introduce other teaching options focused on urban agriculture, supported by the CSFS. Further opportunities exist, including weaving tighter connections between the TMU Urban Farm, the Food Security Certificate, and the strong focus on urban issues already present in the CSFS^[7] Other dimensions could be developed further as focal areas that build on existing strengths, including Indigenous food sovereignty, Black food sovereignty, and local-international connections.

While the Food Security Certificate is still thriving, challenges and opportunities have emerged, particularly over the past half-decade. One limitation has been the reliance on the full-semester course mode. Many teaching modalities for food security and food systems now exist, including online ones. Reports from 2002, 2013, and 2021 also identified other modalities for teaching food security (and food sovereignty, food systems, urban food issues, etc.). These include short courses, intensive courses, modules adapted from existing courses, urban field courses, among others (Ryerson University, 2002, p. 12).

In the initial proposal for the Certificate, other learning modes were intended to complement the standard semester-based classes, since the Division of Continuing Education “has experience with many different modes of distance learning.” Moreover, since the Certificate is organized in modules, a set of modules “could be pulled out to create a short course on [a] specific subject. In this way, short courses could be designed around both long-distance access and week-long residential sessions” (Ryerson University, 2002, p. 8, 12).

However, these intentions for flexibility have not materialized, despite occasional discussions in that direction. One explanation may be the rigidity commonly found in academic structures, which makes deviations from standard norms (semester-based, three credits, degree credit…) difficult to implement because they fall outside those norms. Another explanation may be tied to the precarity of the instructor body: the Chang School’s investment in developing and redeveloping regular courses has not carried over to investing in other learning modes.

The potential for alternative educational modes related to food systems has already emerged in other institutions, and it could still be realized in the future. For example, micro-credentials as short-term, targeted, skills-based learning focused on helping learners develop and demonstrate a predefined set of competencies are quickly being adopted by Canadian universities and colleges (Henningsmoen & McGeer, 2024). Another form of course offering could consist of intensive courses that run over a few weeks, or even one packed week. This ‘summer school’ model has been running in August since 2009, with around 100-150 registrants, organized by the research and training organization AU/Lab and hosted by the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).^[8]

Potential partnerships with other universities, as well as key civil society organizations where connections already existed among individuals, have been discussed in the past but were not established or were implemented only once; these possibilities are worth exploring again^[9] Similarly, outreach to professional associations (from architects and planners to nutritionists and social workers) can lead to certified continuing education modules or lectures to maintain currency in the respective profession.

On a different note, this chapter repeatedly emphasizes the importance of experiential learning, yet it does not materialize on its own. It cannot be left to the Academic Coordinator or instructors as an extra responsibility that is not even recognized in the contract with the university. The Chang School once provided a staff person to support the development of experiential learning and partnerships to host it, and it was impactful at the time. Still, this service was short-lived – without such consistent support, experiential learning will always be limited and accidental. Reinstating such support, especially if connected with the CSFS, would create new opportunities.

The program also needs greater job stability for instructors to ensure its long-term viability and quality. The instructor group has remained stable mainly because of their commitment to the certificate program’s objectives; all are CSFS members, and many originated the program courses. But the precarity of being an instructor, or indeed, a coordinator, does not make for an attractive job opportunity. This is due to having to continually apply to teach for each session (instructors) or rely on the Chang School renewing an annual contract (academic coordinator). This puts the program’s future quality at risk. Additionally, current applicants for instructor positions often lack the competencies needed to teach food security effectively. So, the challenge is attracting people with the skills, interest, and drive to maintain program quality, even though instructor positions are precarious.

Overall, the Food Security Certificate has come a long way over two decades, evolving from conversations among a few passionate members of the newly formed Centre for Studies in Food Security into one of the most recognized bases of international education about food systems. This Certificate has received recognition for its accomplishments, including awards from two online education associations, including one “for creating a vibrant experiential online learning environment in which students learn about real-world situations in food security in a manner that is not possible in a classroom.”^[10] Over time, though, other sources of learning have emerged, different modalities of knowledge transmission now exist, and a variety of pressures are impacting students. Still, the challenges continue, and many opportunities have been created so that Certificate graduates become change agents, as the planners of this pioneer program envisioned at the start of the millennium.

References

Centre for Studies in Food Security. (2026). Annual report 2026 [PDF]. Toronto Metropolitan University.

Food Banks Canada. (2024). HungerCount 2024: Buckling under the strain [PDF].

Henningsmoen, E., & McGeer, H. (2024). Accelerating Canada’s workforce: Micro-credentialing in the digital economy, information and communications.

Johnson, R. (2025, February 16). Toronto declared a food insecurity emergency. This urban farmer wants to be part of the solution. Toronto Star.

Koç, M., MacRae, R., Mougeot, L. A., & Welsh, J. (Eds.). (2000). For hunger-proof cities: Sustainable urban food systems. International Development Research Centre.

Levkoe, C. Z., Knezevic, I., Appavoo, D., Moraes, A., & Scott, S. (2020). Serving up food studies online: Teaching about “food from somewhere” from nowhere. Food, Culture & Society, 23(3), 434–453.

Malinski, R., and MacRae, R. (2006). An online food security certificate at the local and international levels [PDF]. In Pasian, B. and Woodill, G. (Eds.), Plan to Learn: Case Studies in eLearning Project Management. Halifax: Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance, pp. 38-46.

NEXUS. (2004). NEXUS interviews Richard Malinski upon his retirement from Ryerson [PDF]. Nexus: A Ryerson University Newsletter Produced by the Library, (15), 2–3.

Ryerson University, Ryerson School of Nutrition and Ryerson Centre for Studies in Food Security (Fall 2002). Food Security Certificate Program Offered by Ryerson University. Internal document.

Ryerson University, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education (April 2013). Certificate Review, Certificate in Food Security. Review author: Reg Noble. Internal document.

Ryerson School of Nutrition, Faculty of Community Services, and The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education (February 2021). Certificate in Food Security, Certificate Review: Self-Study. Internal document.

Spring, K. A., Barton, S. A., & Bentley, A. (2022). Online learning and community-engaged pedagogy during a global health crisis: Teaching food studies & COVID-19. Food, Culture & Society, 25(5), 1019–1054.

Toronto Metropolitan University. (2025a). DES online course design. DES Online Course Design.

Toronto Metropolitan University. (2025b). Professional development for CECLs. Professional Development for CECLs.