Food Summit 2026 attracts a record turnout

Persistent food insecurity shows the need for the right to food movement

During the Summit, Statistics Canada released new annual data showing that 24% of people in Canada live in food-insecure households. This rate is among the highest recorded over the past two decades of tracking. The data’s timely release reflected another fact: The community food sector needs support more than ever, including opportunities to connect with peers across the country and learn best practices from each other.

Persistent food insecurity also points to the need for our right to food movement. As Right To Food CEO Nick Saul said in the conference’s opening session:

Collective flourishing for future generations

The conference theme, “Rooted in community, flourishing together,” struck an important note with the audience this year.

This focus on collective flourishing was reflected in the opening presentations by Young Spiritual Elder Philip Cote of Moose Deer Point First Nation and Elder Ginelle Skerritt, originally from Trinidad and Tobago. Notably, both Elders spoke about the flourishing of future generations. Philip invoked the seven generations principle: doing something important in your lifetime that can benefit those seven generations from now. In her presentation, Ginelle urged delegates to “answer the question always: ‘How are the children?’” Both Elders recast the constant urgencies faced by our sector within a longer, intergenerational timeframe that is less defined by emergency. This foreshadowed several key conference sessions, which examined generational challenges and the work ahead to meet them.

Focusing on the work ahead

Plenary sessions covered topics that were both a sign of the times and the work that lies ahead.

Black leaders discussed Black food sovereignty and highlighted that due to systemic racism, 41.3% of Black people in Canada experience food insecurity, compared to the national rate of 24%. At the outset, moderator Dr. Kwame McKenzie noted that Black food sovereignty is about more than food access.

The panel featured some of the country’s most impactful champions of Black food sovereignty: Zakiya Tafari of Afri-Can Food Basket, an organization celebrating 30 years of leadership in Black food sovereignty in Toronto; Chef Bashir Munye, co-founder of the African Food Study Centre; Dr. Elizabeth Onoyango, Assistant Professor of Healthy and Sustainable Communities in the School of Public Health at University of Alberta; Dr. Tolulope Ayeyemi of Inclusive Prosperity, a non-profit that supports equity-deserving farmers and food entrepreneurs; and Amanuel Melles of the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities.

In recent years, Canada’s persistent food insecurity has spurred community food organizations to invest in advocacy that drives policy change. In a fireside chat, former Ontario MPP Dr. Jill Andrew advised delegates to join forces to create groundswells of advocacy support. “It is so important to create coalitions,” she said. “Because lives depend on it. It is your elected official’s job to support you. [Their party affiliation] doesn’t matter. It’s about the need in your community, it’s about your recommendations, it’s about your demands. It’s about lives.” Collaboration was also the focus of a plenary on working together to shift federal food policies. Another plenary revealed tactics used in successful advocacy campaigns. These tactics included sending the federal government 70,000 postcards in support of the Canada Disability Benefit and building relationships with civil servants to push for Canada’s National School Food Program.

Notably, several sessions focused on Indigenous food sovereignty. Among these was a two-session workshop on applying the Groundwork for Change, our framework to support Indigenous food sovereignty efforts. Other sessions highlighted Inuit food sovereignty and serving wild game in regulated systems.

Food Summit 2026 was the first Food Summit we hosted under our new name. Fittingly, the conference’s closing session focused on collectively realizing the right to food. The panellists told stirring stories from their own careers: building a grassroots network of care by cooking and delivering food to isolated seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic; defying expectations to grow cassava—a staple of Afro-Caribbean cuisine—in Canada; and in Brazil, putting the right to food into practice to create a national system for food security.

Interested in attending the next Food Summit? If you work at a community food organization, learn more about joining our network of Good Food Organizations.