Mutual-aid organizing for food security puts solidarity over charity

RABBLE.CA BLOGS – Since May, Justice for Migrant Workers (Justicia) has delivered over 2,000 boxes of fresh produce to migrant farm workers across the province. 

Each of the FoodShare food boxes feed two to four people, meaning that thousands of workers have been relying on these deliveries. Co-ordinating weekly food box drop-offs to farms where workers are quarantining as a result of the massive number of COVID-19 outbreaks has become a mainstay of Justicia’s work over the past eight months.

Justicia’s shift toward mutual aid efforts is not unique. We have seen initiatives like these cropping up across Toronto since the outset of the pandemic.

Groups like the People’s Pantry, This Way Up, Uplift Kitchen, and Community Fridges TO were born out of the oppressive circumstances created by COVID-19 (read: the exacerbation of structural poverty, systemic racism and unfettered capitalism).