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t is my last day in Kenya, and I have a flight to catch soon. As I sip coffee in Nairobi’s city centre, I take stock of the past three weeks. I have eaten in post-colonial country clubs on Lake Naivasha and traditional


family homes in Western Kenya. I have eaten mandazi (fried dough) daily, come to love sukuma wiki (kale), and ended many a day enjoying a cold Tusker with new friends.


My trip here has mostly been for pleasure. My partner


moved to Western Kenya three months ago, and I came to travel with him. However I also had the chance to see food security issues and innovations in Kibera (Nairobi’s largest slum) and along the water basin of Lake Victoria - and, as this experience has become a chance to ask questions about food. At home in Toronto, I have spent the last three years


affiliated with The Stop Community Food Centre. The Stop was founded in the late 1970s as one of the first food banks in North America. While food banks have proliferated over the past 30 years, becoming North America’s predominant response to hunger and poverty, The Stop has evolved into something much more. Across its two sites, The Stop hosts nearly 20 programs including a food bank; drop-in meals; community kitchens and gardens; after school, peri-natal, civic engagement and advocacy programs; food markets; and, more. Over the past 10 years, it’s built a reputation nationally as a model for addressing food insecurity, and has become a voice advocating for more holistic solutions to these issues than food banks. Through my time there, I have become all too familiar with food and poverty in Canada, but not elsewhere. My trip to Kenya has been an opportunity to learn more. Now, just hours before my flight home, I am heading


off to meet with the group I have most wanted to learn from on this trip –the Mazingira Institute. The Mazingira Institute was founded in 1978 – nearly


the same time as The Stop – and has also grown into a multi-faceted organization. Executive Director Davinder Lamba begins explaining


their philosophical underpinnings as we sit down with warm tea in their shaded office. I immediately feel at home. Human dignity and rights are at the core of their work. They believe in marrying both knowledge and practice, recognizing the need for tangible solutions to large-scale problems. Most of all, they strive to work from a point of common interest, listening to communities’ needs and desires and using these as the basis for their work.


The program I have come to learn about is called NEFSALF – the Nairobi and Environs Food Security, Agriculture and Livestock Forum. NEFSALF is a training program for new urban and peri-urban farmers. The training is seven days long, and includes 21 two-hour modules. Many of these are dedicated to learning skills and techniques for farming – everything from aqua-farming to livestock, honey production to waste reuse; however, other topics include finding spaces to farm, investment capital, and building lasting support systems for new farmers. Throughout the training, participants create business


plans for their farms, and in order to graduate, they have to present these along with a work plan to their classmates. After graduation, participants receive mentorship from “older” farmers (participants from NEFSALF trainings past); have opportunities to gather periodically for additional trainings; and, amongst themselves, have often


Canadian youth participate in an after-school gardening program at The Stop in Toronto (2012). Photo by Zoe Alexopoulos, The Stop Community Food Centre.


created support “hubs” -- gatherings of women, youth and other interest groups to support each other’s growing enterprises. While the programs offered at Mazingira and The Stop


are quite different – The Stop offers more direct service to individuals, while NEFSALF’s focus is farmer training – my conversation with the Mazingira staff is punctuated on both ends with many moments of familiarity and agreement. What strikes me most is that both groups, having


evolved over a similar period of time, have created what I would consider “comprehensive” organizational models. More specifically, both organizations address the issue of food on several levels. At The Stop, I often explain this as a three-tiered approach. First, The Stop strives to meet an immediate need by providing food to those who are hungry, through the food bank and drop-in meals


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