Staff and volunteers with Feed Scarborough, a non-profit focused on addressing food insecurity in the east end of Toronto, are looking to partially rebuild their community farm after it was damaged in a recent fire.
The untimely fire at the organization’s farm with community garden beds, located on St. Clair Avenue East close to the Scarborough GO Transit train station, came within a week of two acts of alleged vandalism. An old, donated TTC bus set to be repurposed as a mobile food bank and the Feed Scarborough commercial truck used for critical deliveries were covered with graffiti.
It was at around 3 a.m. on July 8 when a worker at a nearby business spotted the fire and called 911. Staff with Feed Scarborough said Toronto Fire Services crews were able to extinguish it a short time later.
“It is devastating,” Suman Roy, the founder of Feed Scarborough — also known as the Scarborough Food Security Initiative, told CityNews in an interview on Tuesday.
“What are people thinking if it is intentional? And if it is not, I think it’s a big accident. But what could have happened is what I worried the most.”
During a tour of the site on Tuesday, manager Sukhmani Singh showed the intensity of the flames. Decorative light bulbs along with part of the bumper of the bus were melted. He said the hose used to bring water from roughly 200 feet away was also melted. The small, white decorative fence at the front of the garden was fully burned and later removed.
Singh and Roy said they are thankful that many of the garden plots used to grow more expensive and culturally diverse types of produce like okra and eggplant were spared from the flames.
CityNews contacted the Toronto Police Service to ask about the matter. A spokesperson said in a brief statement that officers into it and an investigation is still being carried out. They said there were no other updates to provide yet.
As questions linger about whether the fire was arson, Roy said he is waiting to see what the evidence shows but noted some have linked the incident to a nearby shelter.
“We celebrate diversity, we celebrate love, and without even knowing what happened … coming to a conclusion and pointing fingers, that was more disheartening to me than anything,” he told CityNews.
The farm at 3595 St. Clair Ave. E. is also home to the organization’s food distribution centre, fridges, freezers, a commercial kitchen where around 2,000 meals are prepared weekly, and a classroom where residents can learn new culinary skills as they prepare to enter the workforce as cooks. Food grown in the garden is either taken into the hub or is distributed right away. The space also doubles as a community event venue and has a pizza oven for functions.
Feed Scarborough fire underscores fragility of Toronto community garden infrastructure: advocate
The damages come at a time when food insecurity continues to soar, and advocates said the potential loss of the Feed Scarborough space shows how easily supportive infrastructure like community gardens can be affected.
“This is a space that people in Scarborough, in those neighborhoods, rely on for community programming, education workshops and food security purposes,” Sharita Henry, a director with FoodShare Toronto — a non-profit focused on food justice and eliminating food insecurity, told CityNews.
“We recently saw a declaration of a state of emergency around food security across the country, across the province and across the city, it’s becoming a more significant problem for people who maybe would not have even had issues with food security a handful of years ago.
“When we come down to Toronto, we’re also seeing about 25.5 per cent of people in the city of Toronto experiencing food insecurity.”
She said ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, grocery prices have jumped and there have been more job losses. In diverse communities like Scarborough, Henry said many residents have experienced systemic barriers like racism that add to financial challenges.
“A lot of those policy changes that we want to see aren’t just going to be about food security. We have to look at all the different areas that factor into why people aren’t getting enough,” she said.
Henry said more needs to be done on a high level to support people in need, such as liveable wages and breaking down systemic barriers. But implementing changes on a personal level can help too.
“First and foremost, being involved in your local food system, being involved in your community garden, being involved in some of these Meals-on-Wheels-type initiatives or community kitchens, attending workshops, learning more from your neighbours … and then also supporting groups who are doing the work, supporting groups like Feed Scarborough,” she said.
Also on the local front, she said the City of Toronto and other entities need to help build up community garden-related infrastructure so many more plots can be added across the municipality.
Meanwhile, Roy said he and others at Feed Scarborough are hoping for financial or volunteer support from those who might be able to assist.
“We need money to buy stuff and get the truck painted, get the bus painted, buy materials for the fence, and then help in building the fence … so then we don’t have to contract out and spend more money,” he said.
Click here to access Feed Scarborough’s website for more information.
