From Ideals to Action: Changing Food Distribution During the Pandemic

Written by Glen Pearson, Executive Director, London Food Bank

We’ve been in the habit for decades of thinking that community hunger is due to a lack of food resources. In recent years, we’ve come to understand that distribution is just as vital a problem. Londoners – citizens, organizations, businesses – have proved wonderfully generous when it comes to food donations. Giving even accelerated during this COVID-19 year. The critical problem remained of how to distribute that abundance.

The pandemic brought about significant changes in this regard. Nine food distribution depots for low-income families were opened across London – four YMCAs and the five Community Resource Centers within the past year. This enhanced the old adage of “neighbour helping neighbour” and assisted London in getting through COVID-19. It saved people from having to travel across the city to acquire needed supplies.

Both RBC Place London and Youth Opportunities Unlimited coordinated their efforts to prepare nutritious meals in a time when London’s shelters had to function at limited pandemic capacity. In addition, an enhanced food preparation and distribution network was developed to counteract the challenge of delivering hot and cold meals to the city’s homeless population. I was fortunate to volunteer in that process, and it was an inspiration.

One of the greatest transformations in London during these past two years has been the abundance of fresh food products put into meals and hampers for food-insecure families. The Community Refresh Program that diverts fresh food surplus from local landfills to hungry Londoners has provided tonnes of quality products for this purpose. And the new initiative for expanding greenhouses across the city, designed to grow fresh produce for the nine food depots, has already made a significant difference.

These three systemic transformations regarding food distribution have long-term implications. Donations were significant from the public, organizations like the London Community Foundation and United Way Middlesex-London, and a vast government support arrangement. Those resources finally offered our community the opportunity to make the changes otherwise impossible in previous years.

COVID-19 has prompted all this. The many hopes we had for better food distribution only two years ago have partly come to fruition in a fraction of the time than we had thought. It’s what transpires when a community summons the will to act on its ideals.

But let’s not fool ourselves. As recent Vital Signs reports have repeatedly affirmed, the secret to establishing food security isn’t more food but more access to work, housing and inclusion. Without these, we will always be playing catch-up.