When people talk about food security, they most often think of food sustainability, accessibility, and availability. But when I talk about food security, I think of Tabitha McDonald.
In addition to having been a volunteer during her first year, for two-and-a-half years, until March 13, Tabitha was the administrative co-ordinator at the Carleton University Students’ Association Food Centre. In that role, she proved that her knowledge, her passion, and her abilities are unparalleled and irreplaceable in building a more food-secure campus (and world).
While many in the Carleton community have experienced Tabitha’s tireless devotion through using the CUSA Food Centre or participating in Trick or Eat, I have been lucky enough to call Tabitha my friend, and I am compelled to write this opinion piece to decry how, once again, politics have trumped qualifications in our student union.
A month ago, Tabitha was alerted to the fact that CUSA was not renewing her contract, when a posting went up on the CUSA website for the position she held. The position she held was suddenly open for applications.
I have to wonder what Tabitha did to invoke the ire of the occupants of the CUSA office, especially when CUSA Food Centre usage has exploded year-over-year, and when she has been instrumental in turning food security into an on-campus issue.
Is it personal: has her effectiveness insulted the powers that be? Is it political: has she been too close with A Better Carleton’s political enemies? Both, perhaps, but there is likely even more. It is particularly obvious that food security is not a priority for A Better Carleton, whether version 1.0 or 2.0, considering how eager they have been to remove the levies of organizations that have prioritized food security.
The G-Spot’s levy is gone this year, and OPIRG-Carleton, one of the partners in the Carleton community garden, faces a referendum on its levy. CUSA president Alexander Golovko even threatened the GSA’s seat on CUSA council; the community garden is a GSA project.
Not renewing Tabitha’s contract fits this pattern perfectly.
Building a more food secure campus (and world) should be a priority for everyone. Disempowering individuals and defunding organizations that fight for it erases the reality that student hunger and student poverty are significant problems.
It is CUSA’s place, instead, to ally with these individuals and organizations in ensuring sustainability, accessibility, and availability in our food system, especially when Carleton’s administration has little interest in it given the amount of money they receive from their exclusivity contracts with Aramark and Coca-Cola.
Students deserve a food system that fits both their immediate and long-term needs, one that agitates against inaccessibility. Students deserve a food system that is not monopolized by corporations like Aramark and Coca-Cola. Students deserve a food system that considers their humanity, not their ability to pay. Students deserve a food system that prioritizes and recognizes systemic causes and systemic solutions. Students deserve a CUSA that will help build this into a reality, and students deserve Tabitha McDonald.
