Last month, The Stop opened its kitchen to community members for the first time since March.

Our work has changed dramatically since then, but holding space for social connection and communitywhile keeping health and safety at the forefrontremains our priority. The rise in COVID cases has now put programs like this on hold, but we’ll keep looking for innovative ways to safely reduce social isolation.

Hussein Silva and Sharlyn Barahona are the coordinators our Community Kitchen program. In this blog post, they reflect on how COVID has brought new community members to our doors, and explain how cooking together can act as an “antidote to uncertainties.”

Community kitchens create an opportunity for people to enjoy a delicious meal, meet new people, and actively be a part of something they know they belong to.

We spent the past few months re-imagining what cautious gathering could look like, and when the public health restrictions eased in August and September, we were excited to launch a new pilot of the Community Kitchen program called “Back in Bloom.” This weekly, 6-session series had a max capacity of 10 participants to ensure proper physical distancing and efficient monitoring. While it was quite different from a traditional Community Kitchen (which used to entertain groups of about 40 community members every week!), we were proud of the results.

“Back in Bloom” was specifically designed for the influx of new community members we’ve received from different areas across the city who came to our Food Bank and drop-in programs throughout COVID. We found that as other food services were forced to close during the pandemic, people were traveling farther to access The Stop, and we hoped to formally welcome them into our community. Participants were also selected based on interest, availability, and commitment level.

Each session showcased a delicious full menuoften including budget-friendly and culturally diverse dishes. Participants were welcomed with a healthy snack, took part in some informational food activities, and then helped prepare a shared meal. No cooking experience was required, meaning that members arrived with a diverse skillset and with a desire to learn more.

“Back in Bloom” kicked off with a delicious pesto workshop that demonstrated the versatility of pesto in vegetarian, meat, and salad dishes. The second session followed with a Thai-inspired menu that featured personalized pad-thai dishes and a coconut-mango sticky rice dessert.

Feelings of isolation have been at an all-time high in these trying times, and this is particularly true for more vulnerable groups. As an organization that deliberately seeks to create an inclusive safe space, the pressing need for social connection was something we could not ignore. Participants of the program told us that their interest in joining stemmed from a desire to learn about new cultures, gather with people, and simply to have a reason to leave home.

Along with social isolation, they expressed concern around having enough money for food, paying rent, completing financial paperwork, and immigration status. Many also expressed financial worries, a lack of jobs available, the increase of restrictions, and an overall fear.

The Community Kitchen program seeks to be an antidote to these uncertainties by bringing people together and reminding them that they are not alone in this.

Hussein and Sharlyn

“Thank you Hussein and Sharlyn for a wonderful experience of the community kitchen. I am so grateful for all of your support and encouragement, it means a lot! By the way the moussaka turned out really well!! I very much enjoyed it. Makes me remind myself to not assume things and jump to negative conclusions, but to trust.” Lauren, participant

To better address this reality, The Stop needs to re-imagine how we operate.

For decades, we’ve followed the traditional non-profit governance model: our volunteer Board of Directors are responsible for our funding, legal, and regulatory structures, while our Executive Director and the Senior Management Team lead our operations and programming on the ground.

But so much about this model—in which leadership is hierarchical and often unrepresentative of the communities they serve—runs counter to our values, and frankly, isn’t sustainable. The current pandemic has shown how this model puts additional weight and responsibility on one body of the organization, and how this can cause harm.

Past Stop staff have publicly expressed their frustration at this arrangement, and current staff have expressed their eagerness to see transformation.

We’re committed to making this change by following inspiration that’s close to home.

For decades, The Stop’s staff and volunteers have co-created programs and services with our community members. They’ve worked in tandem to strengthen community wellbeing, and have supported peer leadership at every opportunity. This is the model for The Stop’s Community Advocacy Office, our Economic Justice Project, and our Urban Agriculture programming—to name just a few examples.

To eliminate inequities in our organizational governance, we’ll look to follow their lead by distributing power and decision making more broadly, particularly to those who are most affected by poverty and food insecurity.

This shift will improve our ability to support opportunities in their communities, strengthen our decision-making, create a more transparent organizational culture, and avoid the burnout that the non-profit—and specifically the social sector—has unfortunately become known for.

As the Ontario Nonprofit Network recently wrote in their blog post Equity, power, and the future of the nonprofit sector, “Creating a wider network participating in governance decisions not only opens up more possibilities for the work, but takes care of those who are needing to make those decisions.”

We’re excited about their work in this space, and will be following closely.

Here’s how our network will widen in the coming months:

Strengthening our HR practices to improve work conditions for all our staff. We’ve hired a new member of the Senior Management Team who will soon be redesigning our human resources procedures, reframing and reengaging our staff-led Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression (AR/AO) Committee, and spearheading our multi-year AR/AO policy implementation plan. The Stop’s staff have also recently unionized, and we’re eager to work collaboratively with them as we improve our workplace.

Incorporating membership more meaningfully into our governance. Every year, hundreds of community members sign on to become members of The Stop. Members are eligible to attend our Annual General Meeting, approve the appointment of auditor, and vote for new Board members. We see an opportunity to increase member participation throughout the year to guide our decision-making, and we will be looking at meaningful ways to do just that.

Seeking new voices for our Board of Directors. Our board has largely been focused on the fundraising and fiscal obligations of the organization. We recognize the need for a more diverse board, one that’s more representative of the communities we serve. There are currently two open positions that we are seeking to fill, and will be posting publicly in the coming month and proactively engaging new communities to encourage applications.

These are just the first steps. The Stop’s mission is to challenge inequality, and we commit to continually addressing instances of oppression that appear in our policies, work, systems, and values.

We also commit to challenging the ways in which anti-Black racism, colonialism, and intersecting networks of oppression shape the experiences of our community members, volunteers, and staff. In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more updates on how our work is changing in services to these goals.

Re-imagining The Stop will be a collective process. If you’re passionate about our mission, we’d love to hear from you at bod@thestop.org.

 

Leigh Godbold, Executive Director
Sarah Powell, Board Chair