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Join Rachelle Metatawabin (National Advisory Council on Poverty) and Nick Saul (Community Food Centres Canada) moderated by Syma Habib in conversation about poverty in Canada and the role that good food has in achieving the goals set out in Canada's poverty reduction strategies.

 

They will explore topics of food insecurity, the impact of covid, the cost of the nutritious food basket and what Canadians can do to evoke sustainable change.

 

PANELISTS

Rachelle Metatawabin is a social justice advocate, who takes a personal interest in supporting children and youth involved in the social welfare system. Rachelle is passionate about ensuring that communities support individuals to address systemic barriers such as poverty. Rachelle has experience in program support, research and policy work on issues concerning vulnerable youth, poverty, the welfare system and food sustainability.  Rachelle is Cree from Fort Albany First Nation Ontario, but moved to Ottawa when she was 11. As an intergenerational survivor, she was involved with Children’s Aid from birth, becoming a permanent Crown ward of the Ontario government at 15. Rachelle has experienced the negative impacts of homelessness, and as a result can identify many of the gaps in current social policy. Rachelle is currently a member of the Youth Reconciliation Initiative with Canadian Roots Exchange and works as a grant writer, while adventuring with her daughter during their free time.

 

Nick Saul, recipient of the Order of Canada, the Jane Jacobs Award and an honorary Doctor of Laws
(Ryerson University), is a food and social justice activist.  Co-founder and CEO of Community Food
Centres Canada, he has worked with low income communities for 30 years to support people to live
with dignity, health and equity. The pioneering Community Food Centre model he and his colleagues
have forged is working across the country to change the way we view food and each other.

 

MODERATOR

Syma Habib: After many years of working directly with those most impacted by food insecurity, Syma believes that to transform the food system is to transform the entire system, and that our work is to do so with compassion and whimsy. Syma currently works at momentum, a non-profit in Calgary focused on poverty reduction and making economic opportunity accessible to all.