Towards equitable & resilient post-pandemic urban food systems: The role of community-based organizations

In early March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a global health emergency. Among the many crises that emerged with the onset of the pandemic, COVID-19 has magnified existing weaknesses of global food supply chains and the purchasing power of consumers leading to vulnerabilities in food system resiliency. In Canada and elsewhere, job losses, restricted mobility, and vaccine mandates raise questions about who is capable of or responsible for ensuring food security and food system resilience during times of crises (Béné et al., 2016; O'Hara & Toussaint, 2021). Before the COVID-19 global pandemic, food insecurity was already a severe public health problem in Canada, affecting over 4 million people (Tarasuk & Mitchell, 2020). In Toronto, Canada's largest and most diverse urban region, roughly one in five residents experienced food insecurity pre-pandemic (Tarasuk & Mitchell, 2020). COVID-19 has magnified and further compromised the food security of vulnerable groups, including those living in poverty, those with pre-existing health conditions, the elderly, Indigenous peoples, newcomers, refugees and other racialized minorities (Blay-Palmer et al., 2016; Dachner & Tarasuk, 2017; Gray et al., 2020).