{"id":46,"date":"2026-10-05T12:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T16:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/rethinkingfoodsecurity\/chapter\/evolving-food-system-challenges-and-opportunities-for-supporting-immigrant-wellbeing-and-inclusion\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T10:32:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:32:53","slug":"evolving-food-system-challenges-and-opportunities-for-supporting-immigrant-wellbeing-and-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/rethinkingfoodsecurity\/chapter\/evolving-food-system-challenges-and-opportunities-for-supporting-immigrant-wellbeing-and-inclusion\/","title":{"raw":"10. Evolving Food System Challenges and Opportunities for Supporting Immigrant Wellbeing and Inclusion","rendered":"10. Evolving Food System Challenges and Opportunities for Supporting Immigrant Wellbeing and Inclusion"},"content":{"raw":"

Abstract<\/h2>\r\nImmigrants experience disproportionately high rates of food insecurity in Canada, yet discussions of immigrant food security have traditionally emphasized vulnerability, settlement challenges, and barriers to food access. This chapter argues for a broader perspective that recognizes the assets, agency, and innovations immigrant communities contribute to local food systems. Drawing on contemporary literature and two community-based case studies from Toronto's inner suburbs\u2014the Rexdale Community Hub and the Scarborough Food Security Initiative\u2014the chapter examines how immigrant-serving organizations are reshaping food system governance through culturally responsive, community-led initiatives. It explores how community grocery markets, social enterprise, food entrepreneurship, community gardens, and participatory governance strengthen access to culturally appropriate food while fostering dignity, belonging, and food agency. The chapter contends that these organizations extend beyond emergency food provision by creating opportunities for immigrant leadership, economic participation, and greater self-determination within local food systems. At the same time, it emphasizes that community innovation cannot substitute for broader structural reforms addressing income insecurity, affordable housing, employment precarity, and inequitable urban planning. Rather, community-led initiatives and social policy reform should be understood as complementary strategies for advancing immigrant wellbeing. By shifting attention from deficits to capacities, the chapter highlights the importance of immigrant foodways, community knowledge, and grassroots governance in building more inclusive, equitable, and resilient food systems, while identifying priorities for future research, policy, and practice.\r\n

I - Introduction<\/h2>\r\nImmigrant food insecurity has interested researchers for decades, spanning disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and nutrition, as well as geography and urban planning. Foundational literature has helped establish our understanding of the multiple barriers to food access that migrant populations face (Sanou et al., 2014), emphasizing the factors and inequities that contribute to vulnerability to food insecurity and the importance of cultural capital for food security (Vahabi & Damba, 2013). Today in Canada, our food systems reflect systemic inequities experienced by Indigenous, racialized and immigrant communities within a settler colonial society (Elsharkawy, 2024; Regnier-Davies et al., 2022). Disparities in wealth, land ownership, access to capital, and decision-making power over public and commercial spaces contribute to these groups' marginalization (Agyeman, 2020). In Canada, over 10 million people experience inadequate access to sufficient safe, nutritious food (~25%), with the highest rates seen among Black (46.7%), Latin American (37.4%), Filipino (37.2%), Arab (31.6%), South-East Asian (27%), and South Asian Canadians (27.1%), who are among the most food insecure (PROOF, 2025).\r\n\r\nIncreasingly, food security scholars are looking beyond the \u2018vulnerability lens\u2019 to understand immigrant food assets, food access pathways or \u2018foodways,\u2019 and how immigrant communities exercise agency and self-determination over their food environments (Bruckert, 2023; Hammelman, 2018; Khojasteh & Raja, 2017). This shift is partly in response to the recognition that relying on charitable food programs as a form of support for food-insecure immigrant communities is problematic, as they can reinforce relationships of dependency and subjugation while also inadequately responding to the food needs and preferences of immigrant populations given the limitations of food donation streams (Sanou et al., 2014; Onyango et al., 2025). This and other factors have led many to contend that we need to move beyond reactionary and inadequate \u201cemergency responses\u201d toward broader social policy change, such as affordable housing, a living wage, universal income, etc. (PROOF, 2025).\r\n\r\nOur Chapter builds on foundational literatures and highlights the need to better recognize and invest in immigrant food system assets, knowledge, and innovation at the community scale, while continuing to advocate for broader social policy reform. We argue that we need to highlight the evolving and underacknowledged role of immigrant populations in food systems governance and emphasize the growing significance of community-based organizations. Many of these organizations are led by and support immigrant communities, and some are not traditionally food-focused in their mandates (e.g., settlement agencies, community health centres, cultural clubs, religious organizations, etc.). We contend that such community-based organizations are often more closely connected with immigrant populations (Charles-Rodriguez et al., 2023; Roth et al., 2018) than many 'alternative food initiatives\u2019 that have been critiqued in the past for being (unintentionally) exclusionary (Elliott et al., 2023).\r\n\r\nThis Chapter first reflects on the barriers to food security that immigrant communities often face in the Canadian context, highlighting the specific challenges of Toronto\u2019s inner suburban geographies. Fluidly defined, Toronto's \"inner suburbs\" refers to areas within the city boundaries that were developed as post-war suburbs but are now considered older, more established, and more densely populated than the outer suburbs (White, 2018). Using the \"case studies\u201d of Rexdale Community Hub and the Scarborough Food Security Initiative, our chapter points to the capacity, knowledge and experience that community-level actors hold, as well as the strategies and innovations that help to strengthen access to culturally acceptable food and build food agency for immigrants. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the opportunities immigrant-led community-based organizations offer to support immigrant foodways, well-being, inclusion, and food security, while highlighting future areas for research and examination.\r\n\r\nThroughout this Chapter, we use the terms newcomer, migrant, immigrant and racialized immigrant. These terms include people moving from another country, those born outside Canada, temporary residents (such as students or foreign workers), and permanent residents who live and work in Canada. While grappling with this terminology, we recognize the debates around the appropriate wording to describe groups that have experienced historical oppression or continue to face systemic inequalities in Canada. This country's population is highly diverse, with many individuals identifying with multiple ethnic origins. We move away from language such as visible minority, as it focuses on skin colour and imposes a monolithic understanding of communities with vastly different lived experiences (Dean & Edge, 2024). The term minority is also inappropriate as it implies numerical inferiority, though it may also be used to characterize a group that lacks power within a more hegemonic regime (Dean & Edge, 2024). In recent years, the term racialized has gained traction in Canada as a more appropriate term, as it highlights that race is not a biological reality, but a social construct shaped by historical and societal forces (Nicol & Osazuwa, 2022; Dean & Edge, 2024). In some cases, we may also refer to ethnic food retail. In this context, ethnicity refers to distinctive cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics\u2014and though many immigrants could be identified as ethnic minorities, we recognize that not all ethnic minorities are immigrants.\r\n

II - Inequitable Barriers to Food Security and Food Access Facing Migrant Populations<\/h2>\r\nThere are over eight million migrants in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2022), representing 23 percent of the total population (Statistics Canada, 2026). Between January 2016 and May 2021, the country welcomed over 1.3 million immigrants with permanent resident status\u2014marking a historic high for Canada (Statistics Canada, 2022). However, public backlash and pressure to reduce immigration have led to a 2025 federal budget reduction in the target for new permanent residents by 21 percent, with further decreases planned into 2027, as well as stricter rules for temporary workers and international students (Martin, 2025). All levels of government have been engaged in \u2018welcoming communities\u2019 initiatives to attract migrants to grow their economies and fill labour shortages. However, this economic dependency on migrants is unfolding at the same time that xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiments are also rising, adding to pre-existing structural inequalities that challenge racialized immigrants\u2019 ability to secure a good quality of life in Canada.\r\n\r\nResearchers who have studied the determinants of immigrant health more broadly point to a range of factors that likewise shape immigrant food access, which can largely be broken down into economic, environmental, and socio-cultural rationales (Edge et al., 2026). Drawing on the discourse of the \u2018healthy immigrant effect,\u2019 research has historically shown that immigrants are generally healthier than Canadian-born citizens upon arrival. However, over time and amid the stresses of migration (such as challenges in acquiring adequate housing, harsh working conditions, and dietary changes), migrants generally experience a decline in physical and mental health (Fennelly et al., 2007; Vang et al., 2017). Although the immigrant experience is diverse and depends on a range of physical, social, economic, and environmental factors, immigrants in Canada face myriad disparities compared with broader populations (Ramsahoi et al., 2022).\r\n\r\nAccording to the 2021 Canadian Income Survey, one in four (26%) of families (of which the major income earner is a recent immigrant) reported being food insecure (Statistics Canada, 2023). Economic studies of immigrant wellbeing find that immigrants are overrepresented among those working precarious jobs, experiencing labour exploitation, and facing compounded challenges in achieving socio-economic stability in the Canadian context (Dean et al., 2026; Gottfried et al., 2016). Challenges such as limited access to credit, language barriers, inadequate employment opportunities, or restrictive job or internship eligibility requirements mean that even highly educated individuals face barriers to employment in Canada (Berggreen-Clausen et al., 2022; Patterson & Edge, 2025). Compared with Canadian-born residents, immigrants face greater disadvantage, which directly affects their ability to access secure housing, adequate healthcare, and food.\r\n\r\nThe cost of living in Canada directly affects immigrant households' ability to manage income and maintain food security. Given Canada\u2019s growing affordable housing crisis, immigrant families increasingly struggle to secure adequate housing that meets the needs of their (often larger, intergenerational) households. Further, immigrant renters and migrant workers are more likely to live in overcrowded housing conditions that lack privacy, spacing, adequate sanitation, and water (Caxaj et al, 2023; Edge et al, 2020). For those with limited income, it can be especially challenging to secure nutrient-dense foods (like fruits, vegetables, dairy, fish, and meat), culturally specific products (such as Halal or Kosher items), or imported ingredients (Berggreen-Clausen et al., 2022; Vahabi & Damba, 2013). Food costs, particularly imports, also fluctuate due to war, changing tariff agreements, high oil prices, and the climate crisis (AFI, 2025).\r\n\r\nBeyond affordability and the widely acknowledged economic barriers facing immigrant populations, researchers, particularly geographers and urban planners, have turned their attention towards understanding how immigrant food access is shaped by factors beyond household income, including the built environment and existing infrastructure (Dickau et al., 2021), and\/or socio-cultural factors (e.g. social networks, ethno-cultural practices and resources) (Bessey et al., 2025; Hammelman, 2018). The physical environment can undermine food access, especially in geographic regions developed to promote car dependency and\/or underserved by public transit (Edge et al., 2024). For example, the vast landscapes of Toronto\u2019s inner suburban regions include an abundant and eclectic mix of ethnic food retail spaces, restaurants, and fast-food joints, along with some conventional low-cost food retail spaces that minimally shape their offerings to the preferences or needs of local communities. However, despite the plethora of food access points, the sprawling and congested geographical region, underserved by public transit and unsuitable for walking, makes the daily task of sourcing food incredibly stressful for residents, especially for those who cannot access a car (Mendly-Zambo et al., 2021; Jacobs, 2017).\r\n\r\nOthers argue that living in a neighbourhood with high immigrant density can protect newcomers from dietary changes associated with acculturation, highlighting the importance of sociocultural networks and a sociological perspective (Zhuang & Chen, 2016). Bruckert (2023) illustrates that the settlement patterns of immigrant communities influence the spatial and social configuration of food environments and food systems, while others suggest that immigrant communities reconfigure and reinvent food systems and access through ethnic food entrepreneurship and place-based cultural gatherings in food spaces (Zhuang, 2019; Zhuang et al., 2017; Edge et al, 2026). Within the inner suburbs of the GTA, ethnic enclaves can provide access to culturally significant food and cultural representation that aligns with immigrants\u2019 practices and connect migrants to businesses and services in the language of the community (Edge et al., 2026; Zhuang, 2021; Qadeer et al., 2010). In contrast, outlying and inner suburban communities remain underprepared in terms of programs, policies, and infrastructure needed to adequately support the health of incoming immigrant populations, which can include a lack of available and adequate housing, access to health care, jobs, transit, green space, cultural programming, etc.) (Dean et al., 2026; Edge et al., 2024; Patel et al., 2019).\r\n\r\nFood choices, food sources, and preparation are important aspects of food security for immigrants and are tightly intertwined with migrants\u2019 identities, kinship, social networks, and cultural practices (Edge et al., 2026; Hammelman, 2018). As Seko and Brady detail in Chapter 3 of this volume, cultural food is particularly important to identity formation and a sense of belonging, and is linked to notions of power, racialization, othering, etc. However, Seko and Brady (2026) also caution that we should not assume cultural food is limited to the immigrant 'other,' as the changing landscape of immigration, intergenerational knowledge sharing, and adaptation to a new society continuously shape cultural food preferences and traditions. Nonetheless, other works unpack the relevance of cultural food to immigrant populations, including challenges accessing it (Seko et al., 2021; Moffat et al., 2017). Others point to the myriad ways immigrants employ their creative agency to construct new forms of immigrant-specific cultural capital across food-related social, physical, and increasingly digital infrastructure and broader food systems (see Edge et al., 2026; Hammelman, 2018; Erel, 2010; Koc & Welsh, 2002). The remainder of this chapter contributes to such work and calls for more attention to immigrants\u2019 agency in interconnected food provisioning strategies that span neighbourhood geographies and social networks.\r\n

Immigrant Food Insecurity in Toronto\u2019s Inner Suburbs<\/h3>\r\nWith demographic changes, the City of Toronto has become increasingly segregated: with mixed-income neighbourhoods becoming more scarce (particularly in the gentrifying core), while lower-income, visible minority and immigrant populations are being pushed to the city\u2019s \u2018inner suburbs\u2019, where there is less access to services, transit and grocery stores (Edge et al., 2020; Zhuang et al., 2021). Through the 1960s and 70s, the inner suburban regions of what is now described as the Greater Toronto Area were shaped by a surge in high-rise and public housing development built to serve low-income families (Ghosh, 2014). These areas, including the boroughs of Etobicoke, York, East York, and Scarborough, feature pre-war housing alongside post-war high-rise neighbourhoods, characterized by a mix of older, established ethnic enclaves and newer multi-ethnic communities (Zucchi, 2007). Over the years, many immigrant families have gravitated to these areas because of relatively low-cost housing, larger apartments that are somewhat conducive to intergenerational living, and proximity to ethnic institutions and retail (Ghosh, 2014; Zhuang et al., 2021).\r\n\r\nToronto\u2019s inner suburbs typically exhibit concentrations of poverty, ageing infrastructure, racial and spatial segregation and insufficient access to public services (Keil, 2017), all of which can compound food insecurity. These areas include a concentration of neighbourhoods referred to as \"Neighbourhood Improvement Areas\" (NIAs), which the municipality designated for their prevalence of poverty, environmental and infrastructural concerns, and need for re-investment (City of Toronto, 2014). Community-based organizations in these regions work to strengthen and integrate health, social, legal, immigration, employment, and cultural services. In recent years, out of necessity, many local non-profits, community-based, and grassroots organizations supporting migrant populations (e.g. settlement agencies, community hubs, faith organizations, health centres, etc.) have become increasingly focused on food security, developing a range of programming from emergency food hampers and food banks to social supermarkets and other community-led food initiatives.\r\n

III - Understanding Regional Immigrant Food Assets and Foodways<\/h2>\r\nDespite the inner suburbs being a site of struggle and inequity, we argue that these spaces are also sites of cultural vibrancy. Across Toronto\u2019s inner suburbs, many immigrant-led initiatives have been developed to build social inclusion and address social issues. Inner suburban boroughs, like Rexdale and Scarborough, have been shaped by a plethora of immigrant-owned businesses and food initiatives and are becoming increasingly known for their dynamic cultural food scenes and immigrant \u2018foodways\u2019 (B\u00e9gin & Sharma, 2018). A \u2018foodway\u2019 encompasses traditional and evolving activities, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours associated with food in one\u2019s daily life (Koc & Welsh, 2002). Immigrant \u2018foodways\u2019 include the customs of food production, preservation, preparation, presentation, gathering, and marketing (both buying and selling) of local immigrant communities (Darnton, 2012). The prominence of an immigrant community's \u2018foodways\u2019 signals the degree to which migrant populations\u2019 food needs are being met within a given geography (Cachelin et al., 2019; Qadeer et al., 2010). We provide two examples of community-driven organizations, including the Rexdale Community Hub (RCH) and the Scarborough Food Security Initiative (SFSI), that lead food systems responses in inner-suburban regions marked by a diverse array of international cultures, flavours, needs, and traditions.\r\n

Rexdale Community Hub and Community Grocery Market<\/h3>\r\nRexdale is located in the northwest region of the Greater Toronto Area and is home to a high concentration of immigrant households\u2014 50% of the population in the area are immigrants. Of these, 52% are first-generation immigrants, including people primarily from Africa, Asia, South Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas (City of Toronto, 2018). Founded in 2009, the Rexdale Community Hub (RCH) was established to bring together social services, healthcare, recreational facilities, and government support in a single, accessible location for residents of North Etobicoke (Aguilar, 2024). Designed as a \u201cone-stop shop\u201d for a historically underserved and predominantly immigrant community, the Hub offers a wide range of services, including after-school programs, social clubs, settlement support, employment assistance, and spaces for recreation and social connection (Aguilar, 2024). A board of directors governs RCH and operates through a collaborative model involving six independently managed non-profit organizations that deliver various programs (RCH, 2023). While its structure may seem hierarchical, the Hub\u2019s leadership and staff are deeply rooted in the community. Much of the staff team lives and works in the community they serve, and they actively engage residents and stakeholders, recognizing them as essential partners and experts in shaping programs and informing decisions.\r\n\r\nAmid the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the RCH, like many social sector organizations, mobilized a rapid crisis response to address the growing issue of food insecurity. Alongside resident volunteers, RCH led the coordination of an intersectoral emergency food initiative serving the Rexdale community, bringing together resident leaders, small ethnocultural grocers and restaurants to source and distribute food hampers and prepared meals. The initiative prioritized support for newcomer residents hit hardest by the crisis, with a distribution and delivery system designed to reach those facing mobility barriers. A distinctive and foundational aspect of the program was its commitment to sourcing and distributing food community members needed and preferred\u2014offering culturally preferred items such as Halal or Kosher products and \u201cequator foods,\u201d such as tropical fruits and vegetables familiar to many immigrant communities. The organization surveyed the hundreds of households it supports to avoid assumptions about the age and cultural appropriateness of the food procured. Residents were at the heart of the operation, playing a vital role in addressing the urgent and evolving needs of their neighbours.<\/span>\r\n\r\nFood insecurity in Rexdale was a pressing concern long before the COVID-19 pandemic. For years, community members had discussed alternative, financially sustainable, and more equitable food system solutions. After the pandemic\u2019s early waves, the RCH revisited long-standing discussions about a longer-term food access model with residents, service partners, municipal health promoters, and community-engaged researchers (the authors of this chapter). While emergency food relief remained essential for many, it was clear that such short-term responses could not address the community's experience of food insecurity. RCH staff and community leaders aimed to create a more empowering and dignified approach that would move beyond reliance on temporary funding and crisis response and become a lasting, sustainable part of the Hub\u2019s operations, based on the community's needs and preferences.\r\n\r\nWith funding from the United Way and Mitacs, the RCH team led a participatory action research project, which involved researchers from the Centre for Studies in Food Security, who trained and worked with community resident researchers to co-facilitate a feasibility study to determine whether it was desirable and feasible to run a community grocery store out of the Rexdale Community Hub. The team then piloted a prototype social supermarket and documented and evaluated lessons learned on whether it could remain operational. The Rexdale Community Grocery Market was launched in June 2024 and has secured funding for another three years. The market intends to become financially sustainable while offering fresh, affordable, and culturally preferred foods to meet the needs of a food-insecure and ethnically diverse immigrant community.\r\n\r\nThe RCH sought a socially driven enterprise model for a community market to break free from the charitable approach they developed during the pandemic and create more opportunities for community members to exercise agency over their food choices. In a recent conversation with Amra Munawar, RCH's Executive Director, she emphasized the market's importance to the densely populated immigrant community, which faces varying degrees of food insecurity. She recognizes that for some, food charity is still needed\u2014while for others, engaging in a socially focused retail space is preferred to enhance dignity, belonging and care:\r\n
I think this market has lots of potential in terms of building community members\u2019 capacity. We can offer retail experience for some participants, and the market itself is very welcoming. If there are seniors with physical limitations, the staff help them out, and they go with them to shop. And sometimes, we understand that some people, they cannot purchase things, and without hurting their dignity, we ask how we can support them. So, the market is not a regular store; we run the market with compassion and care.<\/blockquote>\r\nThe staff, volunteers, and organizers of the market do not see this initiative as being able to fully solve the challenges that immigrants face in their settlement journey in Canada. However, participants in the CGM program say the market provides convenient access to fresh, affordable food and ingredients. In a high-rise community with somewhat limited transit access, residents value the Market for its convenience in their daily routine, especially those with mobility issues, such as seniors or parents with small children. We see the CGM as a stepping stone toward greater community self-determination in the food system, while also providing training and work opportunities and supporting newcomers who currently lack the English language skills needed for mainstream employment. The RCH\u2019s community-engaged and participatory research project involved training and employing Rexdale residents to develop a feasibility study (which informed a longer-term business plan) and to support the project's ongoing evaluation by monitoring the impacts and operational challenges the initiative faces. The Hub also employs community members to run the market in collaboration with staff. It works with a local flea market vendor to purchase and deliver the food every week. The focus on community assets, intersectoral collaboration, and creating a space for more self-determined food access through social enterprise marks a significant shift away from a traditional food charity model often prescribed to communities like Rexdale\u2014and a big step toward greater community-level food system governance.\r\n\r\nFigure 1: Toronto map and Rexdale<\/strong>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_82\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"]\"Map Location of Rexdale within Toronto. The highlighted boundary is approximate.[\/caption]\r\n

The Scarborough Food Security Initiative (SFSI)<\/h3>\r\nScarborough is a vast urban region to the east of the city's downtown core. It is considered an inner suburb because of its location within the Toronto metropolitan area and its history as a suburban area amalgamated into the city of Toronto in 1998, along with East York, Etobicoke, North York, and York (Government of Ontario, 2025). Although its distance from the downtown core makes it a suburb, its proximity to other established parts of Toronto and its density qualify it as an \"inner\" suburb (Stevenson, 2017). Scarborough's population is over 600,000 people, over half of whom are immigrants (55.5%), mostly from Asia, Southeast Asia, and the West Indies (City of Toronto, 2021).\r\n\r\nFood insecurity in Scarborough is a significant issue. While there is little research that details the exact degree to which food insecurity is experienced, local community\u2013based organizations understand that there is an ongoing and high prevalence of food insecurity in Scarborough, particularly among immigrant and low-income individuals and families (SFN, 2025). In 2015, community-based organizations and concerned residents came together to collaborate on efforts to address the impacts of food insecurity and food system injustice in the region, and to create a point of democratic access to the food system for immigrant populations\u2014forming what is now called the Scarborough Food Network (SFN, 2025). One of the more recent organizational additions to this network is the Scarborough Food Security Initiative (SFSI).\r\n\r\nWhen discussing the origins of the SFSI, founder Suman Roy often tells the story of neighbours gathering in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and pooling pocket money to buy food for a few households facing food crises. The initiative grew out of informal mutual aid for friends and neighbours, with the assumption that it would be a short-term project. Fast forward five years and the SFSI has established six food banks within community housing buildings, runs several meal programs, manages several community gardens, facilitates youth cooking classes, operates an immigrant entrepreneur food business start-up program and employs a dozen individuals who engage in international advocacy and policy research on food security (SFSI, 2024). Despite running its own food banks, the Initiative is highly critical of charity dependency. It has grounded its strategic planning in long-term social change for Scarborough communities densely populated by immigrants and newcomers, demonstrating its role in shaping food access, acceptability, and agency.\r\n\r\nThe SFSI's mandate is to \u201cempower Scarborough and provide innovative solutions to poverty reduction through dignified access to food,\u201d and it \u201cadvocates for and believes that good healthy food is a human right\u201d (SFSI, 2024). The Initiative's work is unique in its focus on newcomer, immigrant, and refugee well-being. The 2024 Annual Report notes that 95% of recipients of support through SFSI programs are immigrants living in the Scarborough region. Of that, 72% have been in Canada for one year or less (SFSI, 2024), emphasizing the intersection between the settlement process and food insecurity.\r\n\r\nThe Initiative takes a three-pronged approach to responding to the impacts and causes of food insecurity for Scarborough residents: 1) Emergency food, 2) Long-term impact and 3) Research and advocacy. It maintains food bank delivery within community housing to ensure ongoing support for those seeking emergency food. Roy and staff recognize that broader social change is needed to ease the pressures residents face around housing, employment access, and surviving in a society that lacks support for newcomers and immigrants in Canada.\r\n\r\nAs part of its role in facilitating publicly accessible knowledge sharing, the CSFS hosted a public event in 2024 on immigrant food security and entrepreneurship in Scarborough. As a featured panellist, Suman Roy shared his perspective on food banks in Canada:\r\n
Even prior to starting the initiative, if anybody asked me about food banks, the first thing I would say is that they are the biggest problem for food security... they should not exist. They create more food insecurity than they do good. And now the irony is, I now run six of them. But I still strongly believe that food banks were created as a very temporary solution... but we cannot stop the emergency bandage because people are living in dire circumstances. So, we still have food banks, and we have gardens, kitchens and fresh food markets to keep people fed.<\/blockquote>\r\nSuman and his colleagues recognize Scarborough\u2019s reality and the structural inequities communities face when living in a part of the city that lacks basic infrastructure for residents' well-being.\r\n\r\nBeyond emergency food support and access to fresh food, the Initiative also aims to empower immigrants in the community through career development and entrepreneurship training. \u201cStartup Scarborough\u201d is a three-month program that supports aspiring immigrant food entrepreneurs in launching, strengthening, or scaling their businesses (SFSI, 2024). The mentorship program offers basic guidance on marketing, funding, and business growth to help program participants advance their ventures (SFSI, 2024). More advanced entrepreneurs can gain insights on international trade, branding, e-commerce, and scaling operations to \u201celevate their ventures to the next level\u201d (SFSI, 2024). The Initiative developed \u201cFoodHall TO,\u201d a brick-and-mortar food court space that provides a platform for hands-on entrepreneurial experience and mentorship to build immigrant food businesses and expand their customer base (SFSI, 2024).\r\n\r\nSFSI's work and its emphasis on immigrant capacity building intersect with local-level planning for diversity, including its brick-and-mortar food court program and the establishment of community gardens and kitchens for immigrant communities. Entrepreneurship programs like those offered by SFSI directly strengthen participants' economic stability. They also build and strengthen the local food system by bolstering regional immigrant foodways. However meaningful their work, SFSI recognizes the deeply embedded structural limitations they face and the lack of government action to address the underlying causes of poverty. The organization concurs that income security is a root issue of food security in Canada, yet the Initiative also reinforces a nuanced understanding of what food security means for immigrants in Canada by advocating for greater food system agency for the Scarborough community. Perhaps unintentionally, SFSI leadership also highlights the historic lack of diverse voices in Toronto and Canada\u2019s food policy discussions by bringing immigrant and racialized representation into advocacy for systemic change.\r\n\r\nFigure 2: Toronto map and Scarborough<\/strong>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_81\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"]\"Map Location of Scarborough within Toronto. The highlighted boundary is approximate.[\/caption]\r\n

IV - Shifts in Recognition and Investment in Immigrant Community Assets, Knowledge and Innovation<\/h2>\r\nWithin a municipality that claims, \u201cDiversity our Strength,\u201d and promotes its ethnic suburbs as a symbol of multiculturalism in city branding strategies (Almeida, 2022), we recognize that the City still struggles to address its ethnocultural diversity across the broader Greater Toronto Area. As Zhuang (2021) articulates, this inadequacy manifests as ad hoc planning approaches and inequitable resource distribution, contributing to the persistent marginalization of highly racialized and underserved communities (p. 114). Through \u201ccase studies\u201d of two community-based organizations in Rexdale and Scarborough, we show how local groups and organizations have taken the lead with solution-based approaches to address the impacts of food insecurity on immigrant communities.\r\n\r\nMore federal and provincial-level government responses and policy changes are needed to create greater economic stability for all Canadians. Examples of necessary social policy reforms include a living wage, social assistance rates aligned with the cost of living, affordable housing, a basic income guarantee, stronger employee benefits, low-income tax relief, etc. (Tarasuk & McIntyre, 2025). Nevertheless, we argue that food insecurity, particularly from a 5As perspective, will persist even in the best-case scenario in which this country addresses or eliminates material deprivation (Edge, 2025). Foundational literature shows that physical and social environments significantly affect immigrant health and wellbeing, regardless of an individual's or household's economic position (Koc & Welsh, 2002; Patel et al., 2019; Edge et al., 2024). For example, broader societal and infrastructural challenges in outlying suburbs can reinforce food security barriers for immigrant communities. Issues such as aging urban infrastructure, high housing costs, limited mobility options, and gaps in public and transit services can also limit access to food retail (both cultural and mainstream) for many immigrants in Toronto (B\u00e9gin & Sharma, 2018). This, compounded with other variables\u2014such as their level of English comprehension, their age, gender, ethnic background, legal status or the amount of time they have been in Canada\u2014can reinforce vulnerability for many immigrants, having a significant impact on their health, well-being and food security (Maynard et al., 2018; Bessey et al., 2025). Further, many newcomers, including refugee claimants, those with precarious legal status, and\/or international students, may not benefit from living wage policies; for example, if they are ineligible, face other employment barriers, or fear retribution (Regnier-Davies et al., 2022). While income supplementation measures are vital, they risk subsidizing business as usual on their own. Finally, many community-based initiatives seek to strengthen the agency of racialized migrants who lack power in a system dominated by a few powerful actors (Edge, 2025).\r\n\r\nThroughout this Chapter, we demonstrate the relevance and importance of food scholars paying increasing attention to immigrants' agency, assets, capacities, entrepreneurialism, and social networks for immigrant food security (Hammelman, 2018). The social enterprise model delivered by the RCH and the entrepreneurship programs offered by the SFSI, for example, have positive implications for immigrant communities and strengthen immigrant foodways by creating direct opportunities for cultural food access and immigrant food-focused entrepreneurship.\r\n\r\nGreater attention to similar examples is needed to highlight instances of self-determination, community-level innovation, strategies for overcoming resource challenges, advances in food sovereignty, and necessary redistributions of power among collaborating institutions. Further, the study needs to examine how immigrants\u2019 personal and collective strategies for overcoming distance- and cost-related barriers transcend neighbourhood geographical boundaries, societal networks, and space, redefining how food access and consumption behaviours are determined in a multicultural society (Hammelman, 2018). As Edge and colleagues note, these strategies continue to evolve. In today\u2019s digital age, more and more migrants use online communities, digital platforms, and chat groups to coordinate more efficient and cost-effective procurement of culturally preferred foods (Edge et al., 2026).\r\n\r\nFinally, we wish to emphasize that community-based organizations (e.g. settlement agencies, health centres, social service agencies, etc.) that are closely engaged with immigrant populations are often overlooked in the literature on food security\u2014yet their efforts in addressing social support gaps are important for the health and wellbeing of underserved populations (Edge et al., 2026; Regnier-Davies & Edge, 2024). This matters because food practices, spaces, and policies have historically marginalized immigrants and promoted hegemonic understandings of food access that fail to consider immigrant foodways, knowledge, and skills and\/or effectively engage immigrants as active and influential \u2018food citizens\u2019 (Bonnevera, 2025). The RCH and SFSI examples demonstrate that community-level organizations can carve out space for residents to respond to an issue that has a direct impact on themselves and their communities\u2014especially for those who may not have direct paths or the ability to connect with the policy realm or believe that policymakers believe or care about their experience. Recognizing the role and value of immigrant-led organizations reconfigures the general understanding of food system governance by introducing actors who have not historically been food-focused\u2014yet have been more effective at engaging racialized immigrant populations in food system issues than previous waves of the alternative food movement and established urban food policy councils (Charles-Rodriguez et al., 2023; Elliott et al., 2023; Roth et al., 2018). The work of such organizations complements the drive for broader policy reform and creates opportunities for diverse voices within policy discourse. As Canada works to strengthen the resiliency of local and regional food systems amid the cascading crises of geopolitical conflict, inflation, trade wars, climate change, and supply-chain disruptions, it must reflect the changing and increasingly diverse demographics of our contemporary society.\r\n

A Note from the Authors<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nIn the months before publication of this Chapter, attention has been placed on the governance and operational management of the SFSI, raising concerns about the organization\u2019s capacity to manage finances effectively (Brockbank, 2026). We recognize that the allegations are concerning, yet we also emphasize that SFSI faces common challenges many small organizations experience, given its limited staff, capacity, and resources. At the time of writing, the allegations against founder Roy remain unsubstantiated in the public record. These claims do not overshadow the intent of this Chapter, which is to focus on the impacts and positive outcomes of the organization\u2019s programming and to emphasize that greater support to enhance organizational capacity remains a sectorwide need.\r\n

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L., Daniel, C., Lee, J., Abu-Shaaban, N., & Wang, S. (2026). Ethnic food retail and immigrant wellbeing: A relational understanding of Chinese migrants\u2019 food access in Toronto, Canada<\/a>. Food, Culture & Society, 29<\/em>(4), 1156\u20131179.\r\n\r\nEdge, S., Zhuang, Z. C., & Dean, J. (2024). Reshaping essential public spaces and services: Towards socio-spatial justice in a post-pandemic era<\/a>. Town Planning Review<\/em>, 1\u201319.\r\n\r\nElliott, H. L., Mulrennan, M. E., & Cuerrier, A. (2023). \u201cWe have a lot of (un)learning to do\u201d: Whiteness and decolonial prefiguration in a food movement organization<\/a>. Settler Colonial Studies, 13<\/em>(2), 194\u2013218.\r\n\r\nElsharkawy, O. (2024). Food sovereignty for Black communities in Toronto: Challenges and policy opportunities [PDF]<\/em><\/a>. Black Food Sovereignty Working Group.\r\n\r\nErel, U. (2010). Migrating cultural capital: Bourdieu in migration studies<\/a>. Sociology, 44<\/em>(4), 642\u2013660.\r\n\r\nFennelly, K. (2007). The \u201chealthy migrant\u201d effect<\/a>. Minnesota Medicine, 90<\/em>(3), 51\u201353.\r\n\r\nGhosh, S. (2014). Everyday lives in vertical neighbourhoods: Exploring Bangladeshi residential spaces in Toronto\u2019s inner suburbs<\/a>. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38<\/em>(6), 2008\u20132024.\r\n\r\nGottfried et al., K. (2016). Paving Their Way and Earning Their Pay: Economic Survival Experiences of Immigrants in East Toronto<\/a>. <\/span>Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research<\/i>, <\/span>27<\/i>.<\/span>\r\n\r\nGovernment of Ontario. (2025). Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York<\/em><\/a>. Ontario Archives.\r\n\r\nHammelman, C. (2018). Investigating connectivity in the urban food landscapes of migrant women facing food insecurity in Washington, DC<\/a>. Health & Place<\/em>, 50, 89\u201397.\r\n\r\nJacobs, R. (2017). 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Abstract<\/h2>\n

Immigrants experience disproportionately high rates of food insecurity in Canada, yet discussions of immigrant food security have traditionally emphasized vulnerability, settlement challenges, and barriers to food access. This chapter argues for a broader perspective that recognizes the assets, agency, and innovations immigrant communities contribute to local food systems. Drawing on contemporary literature and two community-based case studies from Toronto’s inner suburbs\u2014the Rexdale Community Hub and the Scarborough Food Security Initiative\u2014the chapter examines how immigrant-serving organizations are reshaping food system governance through culturally responsive, community-led initiatives. It explores how community grocery markets, social enterprise, food entrepreneurship, community gardens, and participatory governance strengthen access to culturally appropriate food while fostering dignity, belonging, and food agency. The chapter contends that these organizations extend beyond emergency food provision by creating opportunities for immigrant leadership, economic participation, and greater self-determination within local food systems. At the same time, it emphasizes that community innovation cannot substitute for broader structural reforms addressing income insecurity, affordable housing, employment precarity, and inequitable urban planning. Rather, community-led initiatives and social policy reform should be understood as complementary strategies for advancing immigrant wellbeing. By shifting attention from deficits to capacities, the chapter highlights the importance of immigrant foodways, community knowledge, and grassroots governance in building more inclusive, equitable, and resilient food systems, while identifying priorities for future research, policy, and practice.<\/p>\n

I – Introduction<\/h2>\n

Immigrant food insecurity has interested researchers for decades, spanning disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and nutrition, as well as geography and urban planning. Foundational literature has helped establish our understanding of the multiple barriers to food access that migrant populations face (Sanou et al., 2014), emphasizing the factors and inequities that contribute to vulnerability to food insecurity and the importance of cultural capital for food security (Vahabi & Damba, 2013). Today in Canada, our food systems reflect systemic inequities experienced by Indigenous, racialized and immigrant communities within a settler colonial society (Elsharkawy, 2024; Regnier-Davies et al., 2022). Disparities in wealth, land ownership, access to capital, and decision-making power over public and commercial spaces contribute to these groups’ marginalization (Agyeman, 2020). In Canada, over 10 million people experience inadequate access to sufficient safe, nutritious food (~25%), with the highest rates seen among Black (46.7%), Latin American (37.4%), Filipino (37.2%), Arab (31.6%), South-East Asian (27%), and South Asian Canadians (27.1%), who are among the most food insecure (PROOF, 2025).<\/p>\n

Increasingly, food security scholars are looking beyond the \u2018vulnerability lens\u2019 to understand immigrant food assets, food access pathways or \u2018foodways,\u2019 and how immigrant communities exercise agency and self-determination over their food environments (Bruckert, 2023; Hammelman, 2018; Khojasteh & Raja, 2017). This shift is partly in response to the recognition that relying on charitable food programs as a form of support for food-insecure immigrant communities is problematic, as they can reinforce relationships of dependency and subjugation while also inadequately responding to the food needs and preferences of immigrant populations given the limitations of food donation streams (Sanou et al., 2014; Onyango et al., 2025). This and other factors have led many to contend that we need to move beyond reactionary and inadequate \u201cemergency responses\u201d toward broader social policy change, such as affordable housing, a living wage, universal income, etc. (PROOF, 2025).<\/p>\n

Our Chapter builds on foundational literatures and highlights the need to better recognize and invest in immigrant food system assets, knowledge, and innovation at the community scale, while continuing to advocate for broader social policy reform. We argue that we need to highlight the evolving and underacknowledged role of immigrant populations in food systems governance and emphasize the growing significance of community-based organizations. Many of these organizations are led by and support immigrant communities, and some are not traditionally food-focused in their mandates (e.g., settlement agencies, community health centres, cultural clubs, religious organizations, etc.). We contend that such community-based organizations are often more closely connected with immigrant populations (Charles-Rodriguez et al., 2023; Roth et al., 2018) than many ‘alternative food initiatives\u2019 that have been critiqued in the past for being (unintentionally) exclusionary (Elliott et al., 2023).<\/p>\n

This Chapter first reflects on the barriers to food security that immigrant communities often face in the Canadian context, highlighting the specific challenges of Toronto\u2019s inner suburban geographies. Fluidly defined, Toronto’s “inner suburbs” refers to areas within the city boundaries that were developed as post-war suburbs but are now considered older, more established, and more densely populated than the outer suburbs (White, 2018). Using the “case studies\u201d of Rexdale Community Hub and the Scarborough Food Security Initiative, our chapter points to the capacity, knowledge and experience that community-level actors hold, as well as the strategies and innovations that help to strengthen access to culturally acceptable food and build food agency for immigrants. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the opportunities immigrant-led community-based organizations offer to support immigrant foodways, well-being, inclusion, and food security, while highlighting future areas for research and examination.<\/p>\n

Throughout this Chapter, we use the terms newcomer, migrant, immigrant and racialized immigrant. These terms include people moving from another country, those born outside Canada, temporary residents (such as students or foreign workers), and permanent residents who live and work in Canada. While grappling with this terminology, we recognize the debates around the appropriate wording to describe groups that have experienced historical oppression or continue to face systemic inequalities in Canada. This country’s population is highly diverse, with many individuals identifying with multiple ethnic origins. We move away from language such as visible minority, as it focuses on skin colour and imposes a monolithic understanding of communities with vastly different lived experiences (Dean & Edge, 2024). The term minority is also inappropriate as it implies numerical inferiority, though it may also be used to characterize a group that lacks power within a more hegemonic regime (Dean & Edge, 2024). In recent years, the term racialized has gained traction in Canada as a more appropriate term, as it highlights that race is not a biological reality, but a social construct shaped by historical and societal forces (Nicol & Osazuwa, 2022; Dean & Edge, 2024). In some cases, we may also refer to ethnic food retail. In this context, ethnicity refers to distinctive cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics\u2014and though many immigrants could be identified as ethnic minorities, we recognize that not all ethnic minorities are immigrants.<\/p>\n

II – Inequitable Barriers to Food Security and Food Access Facing Migrant Populations<\/h2>\n

There are over eight million migrants in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2022), representing 23 percent of the total population (Statistics Canada, 2026). Between January 2016 and May 2021, the country welcomed over 1.3 million immigrants with permanent resident status\u2014marking a historic high for Canada (Statistics Canada, 2022). However, public backlash and pressure to reduce immigration have led to a 2025 federal budget reduction in the target for new permanent residents by 21 percent, with further decreases planned into 2027, as well as stricter rules for temporary workers and international students (Martin, 2025). All levels of government have been engaged in \u2018welcoming communities\u2019 initiatives to attract migrants to grow their economies and fill labour shortages. However, this economic dependency on migrants is unfolding at the same time that xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiments are also rising, adding to pre-existing structural inequalities that challenge racialized immigrants\u2019 ability to secure a good quality of life in Canada.<\/p>\n

Researchers who have studied the determinants of immigrant health more broadly point to a range of factors that likewise shape immigrant food access, which can largely be broken down into economic, environmental, and socio-cultural rationales (Edge et al., 2026). Drawing on the discourse of the \u2018healthy immigrant effect,\u2019 research has historically shown that immigrants are generally healthier than Canadian-born citizens upon arrival. However, over time and amid the stresses of migration (such as challenges in acquiring adequate housing, harsh working conditions, and dietary changes), migrants generally experience a decline in physical and mental health (Fennelly et al., 2007; Vang et al., 2017). Although the immigrant experience is diverse and depends on a range of physical, social, economic, and environmental factors, immigrants in Canada face myriad disparities compared with broader populations (Ramsahoi et al., 2022).<\/p>\n

According to the 2021 Canadian Income Survey, one in four (26%) of families (of which the major income earner is a recent immigrant) reported being food insecure (Statistics Canada, 2023). Economic studies of immigrant wellbeing find that immigrants are overrepresented among those working precarious jobs, experiencing labour exploitation, and facing compounded challenges in achieving socio-economic stability in the Canadian context (Dean et al., 2026; Gottfried et al., 2016). Challenges such as limited access to credit, language barriers, inadequate employment opportunities, or restrictive job or internship eligibility requirements mean that even highly educated individuals face barriers to employment in Canada (Berggreen-Clausen et al., 2022; Patterson & Edge, 2025). Compared with Canadian-born residents, immigrants face greater disadvantage, which directly affects their ability to access secure housing, adequate healthcare, and food.<\/p>\n

The cost of living in Canada directly affects immigrant households’ ability to manage income and maintain food security. Given Canada\u2019s growing affordable housing crisis, immigrant families increasingly struggle to secure adequate housing that meets the needs of their (often larger, intergenerational) households. Further, immigrant renters and migrant workers are more likely to live in overcrowded housing conditions that lack privacy, spacing, adequate sanitation, and water (Caxaj et al, 2023; Edge et al, 2020). For those with limited income, it can be especially challenging to secure nutrient-dense foods (like fruits, vegetables, dairy, fish, and meat), culturally specific products (such as Halal or Kosher items), or imported ingredients (Berggreen-Clausen et al., 2022; Vahabi & Damba, 2013). Food costs, particularly imports, also fluctuate due to war, changing tariff agreements, high oil prices, and the climate crisis (AFI, 2025).<\/p>\n

Beyond affordability and the widely acknowledged economic barriers facing immigrant populations, researchers, particularly geographers and urban planners, have turned their attention towards understanding how immigrant food access is shaped by factors beyond household income, including the built environment and existing infrastructure (Dickau et al., 2021), and\/or socio-cultural factors (e.g. social networks, ethno-cultural practices and resources) (Bessey et al., 2025; Hammelman, 2018). The physical environment can undermine food access, especially in geographic regions developed to promote car dependency and\/or underserved by public transit (Edge et al., 2024). For example, the vast landscapes of Toronto\u2019s inner suburban regions include an abundant and eclectic mix of ethnic food retail spaces, restaurants, and fast-food joints, along with some conventional low-cost food retail spaces that minimally shape their offerings to the preferences or needs of local communities. However, despite the plethora of food access points, the sprawling and congested geographical region, underserved by public transit and unsuitable for walking, makes the daily task of sourcing food incredibly stressful for residents, especially for those who cannot access a car (Mendly-Zambo et al., 2021; Jacobs, 2017).<\/p>\n

Others argue that living in a neighbourhood with high immigrant density can protect newcomers from dietary changes associated with acculturation, highlighting the importance of sociocultural networks and a sociological perspective (Zhuang & Chen, 2016). Bruckert (2023) illustrates that the settlement patterns of immigrant communities influence the spatial and social configuration of food environments and food systems, while others suggest that immigrant communities reconfigure and reinvent food systems and access through ethnic food entrepreneurship and place-based cultural gatherings in food spaces (Zhuang, 2019; Zhuang et al., 2017; Edge et al, 2026). Within the inner suburbs of the GTA, ethnic enclaves can provide access to culturally significant food and cultural representation that aligns with immigrants\u2019 practices and connect migrants to businesses and services in the language of the community (Edge et al., 2026; Zhuang, 2021; Qadeer et al., 2010). In contrast, outlying and inner suburban communities remain underprepared in terms of programs, policies, and infrastructure needed to adequately support the health of incoming immigrant populations, which can include a lack of available and adequate housing, access to health care, jobs, transit, green space, cultural programming, etc.) (Dean et al., 2026; Edge et al., 2024; Patel et al., 2019).<\/p>\n

Food choices, food sources, and preparation are important aspects of food security for immigrants and are tightly intertwined with migrants\u2019 identities, kinship, social networks, and cultural practices (Edge et al., 2026; Hammelman, 2018). As Seko and Brady detail in Chapter 3 of this volume, cultural food is particularly important to identity formation and a sense of belonging, and is linked to notions of power, racialization, othering, etc. However, Seko and Brady (2026) also caution that we should not assume cultural food is limited to the immigrant ‘other,’ as the changing landscape of immigration, intergenerational knowledge sharing, and adaptation to a new society continuously shape cultural food preferences and traditions. Nonetheless, other works unpack the relevance of cultural food to immigrant populations, including challenges accessing it (Seko et al., 2021; Moffat et al., 2017). Others point to the myriad ways immigrants employ their creative agency to construct new forms of immigrant-specific cultural capital across food-related social, physical, and increasingly digital infrastructure and broader food systems (see Edge et al., 2026; Hammelman, 2018; Erel, 2010; Koc & Welsh, 2002). The remainder of this chapter contributes to such work and calls for more attention to immigrants\u2019 agency in interconnected food provisioning strategies that span neighbourhood geographies and social networks.<\/p>\n

Immigrant Food Insecurity in Toronto\u2019s Inner Suburbs<\/h3>\n

With demographic changes, the City of Toronto has become increasingly segregated: with mixed-income neighbourhoods becoming more scarce (particularly in the gentrifying core), while lower-income, visible minority and immigrant populations are being pushed to the city\u2019s \u2018inner suburbs\u2019, where there is less access to services, transit and grocery stores (Edge et al., 2020; Zhuang et al., 2021). Through the 1960s and 70s, the inner suburban regions of what is now described as the Greater Toronto Area were shaped by a surge in high-rise and public housing development built to serve low-income families (Ghosh, 2014). These areas, including the boroughs of Etobicoke, York, East York, and Scarborough, feature pre-war housing alongside post-war high-rise neighbourhoods, characterized by a mix of older, established ethnic enclaves and newer multi-ethnic communities (Zucchi, 2007). Over the years, many immigrant families have gravitated to these areas because of relatively low-cost housing, larger apartments that are somewhat conducive to intergenerational living, and proximity to ethnic institutions and retail (Ghosh, 2014; Zhuang et al., 2021).<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s inner suburbs typically exhibit concentrations of poverty, ageing infrastructure, racial and spatial segregation and insufficient access to public services (Keil, 2017), all of which can compound food insecurity. These areas include a concentration of neighbourhoods referred to as “Neighbourhood Improvement Areas” (NIAs), which the municipality designated for their prevalence of poverty, environmental and infrastructural concerns, and need for re-investment (City of Toronto, 2014). Community-based organizations in these regions work to strengthen and integrate health, social, legal, immigration, employment, and cultural services. In recent years, out of necessity, many local non-profits, community-based, and grassroots organizations supporting migrant populations (e.g. settlement agencies, community hubs, faith organizations, health centres, etc.) have become increasingly focused on food security, developing a range of programming from emergency food hampers and food banks to social supermarkets and other community-led food initiatives.<\/p>\n

III – Understanding Regional Immigrant Food Assets and Foodways<\/h2>\n

Despite the inner suburbs being a site of struggle and inequity, we argue that these spaces are also sites of cultural vibrancy. Across Toronto\u2019s inner suburbs, many immigrant-led initiatives have been developed to build social inclusion and address social issues. Inner suburban boroughs, like Rexdale and Scarborough, have been shaped by a plethora of immigrant-owned businesses and food initiatives and are becoming increasingly known for their dynamic cultural food scenes and immigrant \u2018foodways\u2019 (B\u00e9gin & Sharma, 2018). A \u2018foodway\u2019 encompasses traditional and evolving activities, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours associated with food in one\u2019s daily life (Koc & Welsh, 2002). Immigrant \u2018foodways\u2019 include the customs of food production, preservation, preparation, presentation, gathering, and marketing (both buying and selling) of local immigrant communities (Darnton, 2012). The prominence of an immigrant community’s \u2018foodways\u2019 signals the degree to which migrant populations\u2019 food needs are being met within a given geography (Cachelin et al., 2019; Qadeer et al., 2010). We provide two examples of community-driven organizations, including the Rexdale Community Hub (RCH) and the Scarborough Food Security Initiative (SFSI), that lead food systems responses in inner-suburban regions marked by a diverse array of international cultures, flavours, needs, and traditions.<\/p>\n

Rexdale Community Hub and Community Grocery Market<\/h3>\n

Rexdale is located in the northwest region of the Greater Toronto Area and is home to a high concentration of immigrant households\u2014 50% of the population in the area are immigrants. Of these, 52% are first-generation immigrants, including people primarily from Africa, Asia, South Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas (City of Toronto, 2018). Founded in 2009, the Rexdale Community Hub (RCH) was established to bring together social services, healthcare, recreational facilities, and government support in a single, accessible location for residents of North Etobicoke (Aguilar, 2024). Designed as a \u201cone-stop shop\u201d for a historically underserved and predominantly immigrant community, the Hub offers a wide range of services, including after-school programs, social clubs, settlement support, employment assistance, and spaces for recreation and social connection (Aguilar, 2024). A board of directors governs RCH and operates through a collaborative model involving six independently managed non-profit organizations that deliver various programs (RCH, 2023). While its structure may seem hierarchical, the Hub\u2019s leadership and staff are deeply rooted in the community. Much of the staff team lives and works in the community they serve, and they actively engage residents and stakeholders, recognizing them as essential partners and experts in shaping programs and informing decisions.<\/p>\n

Amid the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the RCH, like many social sector organizations, mobilized a rapid crisis response to address the growing issue of food insecurity. Alongside resident volunteers, RCH led the coordination of an intersectoral emergency food initiative serving the Rexdale community, bringing together resident leaders, small ethnocultural grocers and restaurants to source and distribute food hampers and prepared meals. The initiative prioritized support for newcomer residents hit hardest by the crisis, with a distribution and delivery system designed to reach those facing mobility barriers. A distinctive and foundational aspect of the program was its commitment to sourcing and distributing food community members needed and preferred\u2014offering culturally preferred items such as Halal or Kosher products and \u201cequator foods,\u201d such as tropical fruits and vegetables familiar to many immigrant communities. The organization surveyed the hundreds of households it supports to avoid assumptions about the age and cultural appropriateness of the food procured. Residents were at the heart of the operation, playing a vital role in addressing the urgent and evolving needs of their neighbours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Food insecurity in Rexdale was a pressing concern long before the COVID-19 pandemic. For years, community members had discussed alternative, financially sustainable, and more equitable food system solutions. After the pandemic\u2019s early waves, the RCH revisited long-standing discussions about a longer-term food access model with residents, service partners, municipal health promoters, and community-engaged researchers (the authors of this chapter). While emergency food relief remained essential for many, it was clear that such short-term responses could not address the community’s experience of food insecurity. RCH staff and community leaders aimed to create a more empowering and dignified approach that would move beyond reliance on temporary funding and crisis response and become a lasting, sustainable part of the Hub\u2019s operations, based on the community’s needs and preferences.<\/p>\n

With funding from the United Way and Mitacs, the RCH team led a participatory action research project, which involved researchers from the Centre for Studies in Food Security, who trained and worked with community resident researchers to co-facilitate a feasibility study to determine whether it was desirable and feasible to run a community grocery store out of the Rexdale Community Hub. The team then piloted a prototype social supermarket and documented and evaluated lessons learned on whether it could remain operational. The Rexdale Community Grocery Market was launched in June 2024 and has secured funding for another three years. The market intends to become financially sustainable while offering fresh, affordable, and culturally preferred foods to meet the needs of a food-insecure and ethnically diverse immigrant community.<\/p>\n

The RCH sought a socially driven enterprise model for a community market to break free from the charitable approach they developed during the pandemic and create more opportunities for community members to exercise agency over their food choices. In a recent conversation with Amra Munawar, RCH’s Executive Director, she emphasized the market’s importance to the densely populated immigrant community, which faces varying degrees of food insecurity. She recognizes that for some, food charity is still needed\u2014while for others, engaging in a socially focused retail space is preferred to enhance dignity, belonging and care:<\/p>\n

I think this market has lots of potential in terms of building community members\u2019 capacity. We can offer retail experience for some participants, and the market itself is very welcoming. If there are seniors with physical limitations, the staff help them out, and they go with them to shop. And sometimes, we understand that some people, they cannot purchase things, and without hurting their dignity, we ask how we can support them. So, the market is not a regular store; we run the market with compassion and care.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The staff, volunteers, and organizers of the market do not see this initiative as being able to fully solve the challenges that immigrants face in their settlement journey in Canada. However, participants in the CGM program say the market provides convenient access to fresh, affordable food and ingredients. In a high-rise community with somewhat limited transit access, residents value the Market for its convenience in their daily routine, especially those with mobility issues, such as seniors or parents with small children. We see the CGM as a stepping stone toward greater community self-determination in the food system, while also providing training and work opportunities and supporting newcomers who currently lack the English language skills needed for mainstream employment. The RCH\u2019s community-engaged and participatory research project involved training and employing Rexdale residents to develop a feasibility study (which informed a longer-term business plan) and to support the project’s ongoing evaluation by monitoring the impacts and operational challenges the initiative faces. The Hub also employs community members to run the market in collaboration with staff. It works with a local flea market vendor to purchase and deliver the food every week. The focus on community assets, intersectoral collaboration, and creating a space for more self-determined food access through social enterprise marks a significant shift away from a traditional food charity model often prescribed to communities like Rexdale\u2014and a big step toward greater community-level food system governance.<\/p>\n

Figure 1: Toronto map and Rexdale<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Map
Location of Rexdale within Toronto. The highlighted boundary is approximate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Scarborough Food Security Initiative (SFSI)<\/h3>\n

Scarborough is a vast urban region to the east of the city’s downtown core. It is considered an inner suburb because of its location within the Toronto metropolitan area and its history as a suburban area amalgamated into the city of Toronto in 1998, along with East York, Etobicoke, North York, and York (Government of Ontario, 2025). Although its distance from the downtown core makes it a suburb, its proximity to other established parts of Toronto and its density qualify it as an “inner” suburb (Stevenson, 2017). Scarborough’s population is over 600,000 people, over half of whom are immigrants (55.5%), mostly from Asia, Southeast Asia, and the West Indies (City of Toronto, 2021).<\/p>\n

Food insecurity in Scarborough is a significant issue. While there is little research that details the exact degree to which food insecurity is experienced, local community\u2013based organizations understand that there is an ongoing and high prevalence of food insecurity in Scarborough, particularly among immigrant and low-income individuals and families (SFN, 2025). In 2015, community-based organizations and concerned residents came together to collaborate on efforts to address the impacts of food insecurity and food system injustice in the region, and to create a point of democratic access to the food system for immigrant populations\u2014forming what is now called the Scarborough Food Network (SFN, 2025). One of the more recent organizational additions to this network is the Scarborough Food Security Initiative (SFSI).<\/p>\n

When discussing the origins of the SFSI, founder Suman Roy often tells the story of neighbours gathering in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and pooling pocket money to buy food for a few households facing food crises. The initiative grew out of informal mutual aid for friends and neighbours, with the assumption that it would be a short-term project. Fast forward five years and the SFSI has established six food banks within community housing buildings, runs several meal programs, manages several community gardens, facilitates youth cooking classes, operates an immigrant entrepreneur food business start-up program and employs a dozen individuals who engage in international advocacy and policy research on food security (SFSI, 2024). Despite running its own food banks, the Initiative is highly critical of charity dependency. It has grounded its strategic planning in long-term social change for Scarborough communities densely populated by immigrants and newcomers, demonstrating its role in shaping food access, acceptability, and agency.<\/p>\n

The SFSI’s mandate is to \u201cempower Scarborough and provide innovative solutions to poverty reduction through dignified access to food,\u201d and it \u201cadvocates for and believes that good healthy food is a human right\u201d (SFSI, 2024). The Initiative’s work is unique in its focus on newcomer, immigrant, and refugee well-being. The 2024 Annual Report notes that 95% of recipients of support through SFSI programs are immigrants living in the Scarborough region. Of that, 72% have been in Canada for one year or less (SFSI, 2024), emphasizing the intersection between the settlement process and food insecurity.<\/p>\n

The Initiative takes a three-pronged approach to responding to the impacts and causes of food insecurity for Scarborough residents: 1) Emergency food, 2) Long-term impact and 3) Research and advocacy. It maintains food bank delivery within community housing to ensure ongoing support for those seeking emergency food. Roy and staff recognize that broader social change is needed to ease the pressures residents face around housing, employment access, and surviving in a society that lacks support for newcomers and immigrants in Canada.<\/p>\n

As part of its role in facilitating publicly accessible knowledge sharing, the CSFS hosted a public event in 2024 on immigrant food security and entrepreneurship in Scarborough. As a featured panellist, Suman Roy shared his perspective on food banks in Canada:<\/p>\n

Even prior to starting the initiative, if anybody asked me about food banks, the first thing I would say is that they are the biggest problem for food security… they should not exist. They create more food insecurity than they do good. And now the irony is, I now run six of them. But I still strongly believe that food banks were created as a very temporary solution… but we cannot stop the emergency bandage because people are living in dire circumstances. So, we still have food banks, and we have gardens, kitchens and fresh food markets to keep people fed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Suman and his colleagues recognize Scarborough\u2019s reality and the structural inequities communities face when living in a part of the city that lacks basic infrastructure for residents’ well-being.<\/p>\n

Beyond emergency food support and access to fresh food, the Initiative also aims to empower immigrants in the community through career development and entrepreneurship training. \u201cStartup Scarborough\u201d is a three-month program that supports aspiring immigrant food entrepreneurs in launching, strengthening, or scaling their businesses (SFSI, 2024). The mentorship program offers basic guidance on marketing, funding, and business growth to help program participants advance their ventures (SFSI, 2024). More advanced entrepreneurs can gain insights on international trade, branding, e-commerce, and scaling operations to \u201celevate their ventures to the next level\u201d (SFSI, 2024). The Initiative developed \u201cFoodHall TO,\u201d a brick-and-mortar food court space that provides a platform for hands-on entrepreneurial experience and mentorship to build immigrant food businesses and expand their customer base (SFSI, 2024).<\/p>\n

SFSI’s work and its emphasis on immigrant capacity building intersect with local-level planning for diversity, including its brick-and-mortar food court program and the establishment of community gardens and kitchens for immigrant communities. Entrepreneurship programs like those offered by SFSI directly strengthen participants’ economic stability. They also build and strengthen the local food system by bolstering regional immigrant foodways. However meaningful their work, SFSI recognizes the deeply embedded structural limitations they face and the lack of government action to address the underlying causes of poverty. The organization concurs that income security is a root issue of food security in Canada, yet the Initiative also reinforces a nuanced understanding of what food security means for immigrants in Canada by advocating for greater food system agency for the Scarborough community. Perhaps unintentionally, SFSI leadership also highlights the historic lack of diverse voices in Toronto and Canada\u2019s food policy discussions by bringing immigrant and racialized representation into advocacy for systemic change.<\/p>\n

Figure 2: Toronto map and Scarborough<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Map
Location of Scarborough within Toronto. The highlighted boundary is approximate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

IV – Shifts in Recognition and Investment in Immigrant Community Assets, Knowledge and Innovation<\/h2>\n

Within a municipality that claims, \u201cDiversity our Strength,\u201d and promotes its ethnic suburbs as a symbol of multiculturalism in city branding strategies (Almeida, 2022), we recognize that the City still struggles to address its ethnocultural diversity across the broader Greater Toronto Area. As Zhuang (2021) articulates, this inadequacy manifests as ad hoc planning approaches and inequitable resource distribution, contributing to the persistent marginalization of highly racialized and underserved communities (p. 114). Through \u201ccase studies\u201d of two community-based organizations in Rexdale and Scarborough, we show how local groups and organizations have taken the lead with solution-based approaches to address the impacts of food insecurity on immigrant communities.<\/p>\n

More federal and provincial-level government responses and policy changes are needed to create greater economic stability for all Canadians. Examples of necessary social policy reforms include a living wage, social assistance rates aligned with the cost of living, affordable housing, a basic income guarantee, stronger employee benefits, low-income tax relief, etc. (Tarasuk & McIntyre, 2025). Nevertheless, we argue that food insecurity, particularly from a 5As perspective, will persist even in the best-case scenario in which this country addresses or eliminates material deprivation (Edge, 2025). Foundational literature shows that physical and social environments significantly affect immigrant health and wellbeing, regardless of an individual’s or household’s economic position (Koc & Welsh, 2002; Patel et al., 2019; Edge et al., 2024). For example, broader societal and infrastructural challenges in outlying suburbs can reinforce food security barriers for immigrant communities. Issues such as aging urban infrastructure, high housing costs, limited mobility options, and gaps in public and transit services can also limit access to food retail (both cultural and mainstream) for many immigrants in Toronto (B\u00e9gin & Sharma, 2018). This, compounded with other variables\u2014such as their level of English comprehension, their age, gender, ethnic background, legal status or the amount of time they have been in Canada\u2014can reinforce vulnerability for many immigrants, having a significant impact on their health, well-being and food security (Maynard et al., 2018; Bessey et al., 2025). Further, many newcomers, including refugee claimants, those with precarious legal status, and\/or international students, may not benefit from living wage policies; for example, if they are ineligible, face other employment barriers, or fear retribution (Regnier-Davies et al., 2022). While income supplementation measures are vital, they risk subsidizing business as usual on their own. Finally, many community-based initiatives seek to strengthen the agency of racialized migrants who lack power in a system dominated by a few powerful actors (Edge, 2025).<\/p>\n

Throughout this Chapter, we demonstrate the relevance and importance of food scholars paying increasing attention to immigrants’ agency, assets, capacities, entrepreneurialism, and social networks for immigrant food security (Hammelman, 2018). The social enterprise model delivered by the RCH and the entrepreneurship programs offered by the SFSI, for example, have positive implications for immigrant communities and strengthen immigrant foodways by creating direct opportunities for cultural food access and immigrant food-focused entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

Greater attention to similar examples is needed to highlight instances of self-determination, community-level innovation, strategies for overcoming resource challenges, advances in food sovereignty, and necessary redistributions of power among collaborating institutions. Further, the study needs to examine how immigrants\u2019 personal and collective strategies for overcoming distance- and cost-related barriers transcend neighbourhood geographical boundaries, societal networks, and space, redefining how food access and consumption behaviours are determined in a multicultural society (Hammelman, 2018). As Edge and colleagues note, these strategies continue to evolve. In today\u2019s digital age, more and more migrants use online communities, digital platforms, and chat groups to coordinate more efficient and cost-effective procurement of culturally preferred foods (Edge et al., 2026).<\/p>\n

Finally, we wish to emphasize that community-based organizations (e.g. settlement agencies, health centres, social service agencies, etc.) that are closely engaged with immigrant populations are often overlooked in the literature on food security\u2014yet their efforts in addressing social support gaps are important for the health and wellbeing of underserved populations (Edge et al., 2026; Regnier-Davies & Edge, 2024). This matters because food practices, spaces, and policies have historically marginalized immigrants and promoted hegemonic understandings of food access that fail to consider immigrant foodways, knowledge, and skills and\/or effectively engage immigrants as active and influential \u2018food citizens\u2019 (Bonnevera, 2025). The RCH and SFSI examples demonstrate that community-level organizations can carve out space for residents to respond to an issue that has a direct impact on themselves and their communities\u2014especially for those who may not have direct paths or the ability to connect with the policy realm or believe that policymakers believe or care about their experience. Recognizing the role and value of immigrant-led organizations reconfigures the general understanding of food system governance by introducing actors who have not historically been food-focused\u2014yet have been more effective at engaging racialized immigrant populations in food system issues than previous waves of the alternative food movement and established urban food policy councils (Charles-Rodriguez et al., 2023; Elliott et al., 2023; Roth et al., 2018). The work of such organizations complements the drive for broader policy reform and creates opportunities for diverse voices within policy discourse. As Canada works to strengthen the resiliency of local and regional food systems amid the cascading crises of geopolitical conflict, inflation, trade wars, climate change, and supply-chain disruptions, it must reflect the changing and increasingly diverse demographics of our contemporary society.<\/p>\n

A Note from the Authors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the months before publication of this Chapter, attention has been placed on the governance and operational management of the SFSI, raising concerns about the organization\u2019s capacity to manage finances effectively (Brockbank, 2026). We recognize that the allegations are concerning, yet we also emphasize that SFSI faces common challenges many small organizations experience, given its limited staff, capacity, and resources. At the time of writing, the allegations against founder Roy remain unsubstantiated in the public record. These claims do not overshadow the intent of this Chapter, which is to focus on the impacts and positive outcomes of the organization\u2019s programming and to emphasize that greater support to enhance organizational capacity remains a sectorwide need.<\/p>\n

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