A group of architecture students at Carleton University is building a community pantry to tackle food insecurity in Ottawa’s Centretown neighbourhood.
In May students in the Architecture of Community Care course at Carleton started building the pantry. Menna Agha, who taught the course, supervised the work.
The project, officially called Public Foods, is being built in collaboration with Ottawa Community Housing (OCH), Centretown Community Health Centre and volunteers from the Glebe-St. James United Church.
Agha said working on Public Foods with her students helped teach them how architecture can be used to help the community. The class spent the winter semester designing the pantry, but postponed construction work until late spring because of COVID-19, Agha added.
Agha’s construction team held several public access meetings and spoke to residents of the neighbourhood to assess their needs. The pantry will be located at 415 MacLaren street and will include a fridge, pantry shelving for dry goods and a community garden.
Agha cited the pandemic, global recessions and poverty as reasons Public Foods is more crucial now than ever. She said Ottawa is a food desert where “having a secure meal is not a luxury afforded to everybody.”
According to a Statistics Canada survey conducted in May 2020, almost one in seven Canadians experienced food insecurity during the study’s 30-day period.
Another survey shows people are paying more for food now than ever due to inflation. According to the survey’s data, Canadians pay an average 9.7 per cent more for food now than they did a year ago.
Thompson Nguyen, Public Foods’ project manager and a recent graduate of Carleton’s Master of Architecture program, said there’s also a need for non-perishable food and items such as diapers and menstrual products in the Centretown community.
Joshua Eckert, a second-year master of architecture student at Carleton said “fancy” regulations—such as ID requirement, proof of address and an appointment—are often barriers to those who need food bank services. Eckert has been living in Centretown for four years.
Eckert said Public Foods takes a different approach to formal food banks by allowing access to goods without requiring documentation or justification. He said anyone in need can use the pantry.
The team started a GoFundMe page to alleviate some financial stress, but is still far from reaching its $10,000 goal.
In addition to the GoFundMe donations, Ottawa Valley Metal Inc., donated all of the roofing materials for the pantry, including metal roofs panels, Nguyen said.
OCH donated the land, which Nguyen said helped the construction team avoid the otherwise tricky process of property acquisition.
The pantry is nearly complete. The team wrapped exterior construction at the end of June, and OCH volunteers are currently working on the interior and electrical wiring. Volunteers from Glebe St.-James United Church will be helping set up shelving and storage, according to Nguyen.
Agha said Carleton students made Public Foods possible.
“I think our students at Carleton are activists at heart,” Agha said. “Working toward [solving] issues of justice is really something they wanted to do.”
Featured image by Naomi Badour.
