Empowering Communities: MFRC’s Role in Food Sovereignty

Abstract

This paper examines how community-led food initiatives in Malvern, a neighbourhood in Scarborough, Toronto, respond to structural barriers through the framework of food sovereignty. The central research questions guiding this study are “how do community-based initiatives, like MFRC, address food insecurity and promote food sovereignty, and what kinds of impact do they have within their communities?” Using a qualitative participatory action research (PAR) approach, the study draws on interviews with MFRC staff and participants to explore how their programs challenge dominant food security and charity-based models. The analysis includes a historical and spatial examination of Scarborough’s postwar urban development. It considers how the 1946 Ontario Planning Act, Metro Toronto’s hierarchical governance model and concession-block infrastructure planning produced fragmented, automobile-dependent suburban neighbourhoods, leaving areas like Malvern with limited walkable access to essential services, including affordable food. While both state and market frameworks often view food as a secondary issue, the work of MFRC shows that grassroots organizations affirm food as central to community well-being, identity and autonomy. This study contributes to the ongoing conversation on food justice by reframing food not as supplemental, but as central to social and spatial justice in marginalized urban regions.