Laying the groundwork: Grounding community food programs in Indigenous worldviews
June 19, 2026
In 2023, a group of Indigenous people began exploring how we can help ensure that community food programs are grounded in Indigenous worldviews. These conversations took place within our Indigenous Network, which brings together 250+ organizations from our national partner network to foster reconciliation and the resurgence of Indigenous knowledge systems. Building on those conversations, these Indigenous Network members co-created The Groundwork for Change framework.
The framework guides community food organizations in developing their programs. It lays out three pillars for creating change: 1) Embracing communities for change, focusing on relationships; 2) Honouring Indigenous Knowledge Systems, which asks how we can build programs that carry Indigenous teachings forward; and 3) Nurturing Sustainable Life Cycles, focusing on long-term support, funding, growth, and community ownership.
To help people apply the framework, we released a workbook to support community food leaders. Among these leaders was Michelle Backhouse, Alliance Coordinator at Bow Valley Food Alliance (BVFA). A Right To Food partner since 2020, BVFA operates in Treaty 7 territory, on land known today as southern Alberta.
BVFA has applied The Groundwork for Change to their programming. The framework influences their greenhouse and garden initiatives with Indigenous community members at Îyahrhe Nakoda Food Bank. It informs their conversations with Elders and other community members. It shapes how BVFA approaches food sovereignty, intergenerational knowledge sharing, and creating partnerships. “Today, its principles influence how we design programs, hold meetings, build partnerships, gather stories, evaluate our work, and make decisions,” Michelle says.
Michelle has met individually with local Indigenous advisors “to make this framework alive in our community.” For Michelle, these gatherings put into practice an influential teaching she received from a local Indigenous Elder, the late Philomene Stevens. “Philomene often reminded us that ‘Neighbouring is a verb.’ Relationships are not something we have. They are something we practice.”
Michelle Backhouse of Bow Valley Food Alliance, at our Food Summit conference in April.
“To do good Indigenous programming, you have to bring the community together,” echoes Raymond Johnson-Brown, who manages the Indigenous Network. This truth is reflected in The Groundwork for Change framework itself, which continually centres the patient work of cultivating relationships, rather than rushing to outcomes.
For Raymond, The Groundwork for Change slows time in another way: by asking us to take time to remember Indigenous history and keep it alive. For example, the workbook suggests slowing down for ceremony or protocols before planting, harvesting, or serving food.
And as Raymond reminds us, turning to Indigenous history also offers us something vital—the prospect of a better future. “To get to a collective liberatory future, we have to look to the history of how we got here in the first place. Then we can make conscious choices in the present and unravel what we need to do to get to this future.”
Learn more about the Indigenous Network and its resources, including The Groundwork for Change framework and workbook.
