Dear friend,
It’s been a deeply disturbing week, on so many levels.
The killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto have marked more in a series of instances where Black people have died either in police custody or during an incident involving authorities.
Anti-Black racism has been pervasive in our communities here in Toronto for hundreds of years.
It’s why Black households are 3.6 times more likely to be food insecure than white households. It’s why 44% of Black children in our city live in poverty. It’s why Black Torontonians are 20 times more likely to be killed by police.
In 1982, The Stop’s founders wrote that “We see that good works have the important function of rescue, intervention, and aid, but of themselves they are not enough and cannot be substitute on either the personal or societal level for economic, social, and political justice.”
At The Stop, we commit to doing two things:
• We will continue to provide frontline services—access to healthy food, timely and accurate information, and social supports—to a community that needs us very much right now. This is how we show up, and how we are uniquely positioned to make a difference in our community.
• Food has always been central to our work at The Stop, and we will continue to use food to give everyone a seat at the table. But food alone can’t repair the damage caused by colonization, systemic discrimination, and Anti-Black racism. We commit to using our considerable platform to dramatically escalate our public education efforts and amplify the work of organizations and movements who are organizing in this space.
We are immensely grateful for you as one of our supporters in this work.
We ask that right now you take this energy and direct it to organizations who are directly supporting Toronto’s Black community and dismantling systems of Anti-Black racism—whether it’s with an ongoing donation, a volunteer role, or a commitment to sharing their work and voices with your networks:
• Black Mental Health Matters Fund
• COVID-19 Black Emergency Support Fund
In the coming weeks and months, we will be sharing learning resources both internally and externally. Here are a few we’re reading this week:
• PROOF/FoodShare Race and Food Insecurity Factsheet
• Call it out: Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Human Rights
• “We don’t farm because it’s trendy; we farm as resistance, for healing and sovereignty”
Thank you for your continued support.
From all of us at The Stop Community Food Centre, take care and be well.
Leigh Godbold
Executive Director
Sarah Powell
Board President