Canada: Bulk buying, couponing and urban farming: 3 ways of fighting high food prices
Inflation forces food banks and families to innovate, but experts say a national food policy would go further
By James Dunne
CBC News
Oct 23, 2021
Excerpt:
Adwoa Toku says the best way she’s found to cut her food costs is simply to grow her own.
This spring, Toku, 27, and her roommates planted a garden at their rental home just west of downtown Toronto. “I would say this is probably the healthiest I’ve been eating in my entire life — but also the cheapest as well.”
Toku, who is vegan, works for a community farm in north Toronto, so she has a decent understanding of agriculture. But this year is the first time she’s farmed for herself.
Her crops included collard greens, herbs, peppers, tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries and callaloo, a fast-growing, tall, leafy green.
She and her roommates had such good harvests, Toku said, they shared food with friends, who then became inspired to start growing produce of their own — even on balconies. Toku says all of them wanted to save money on food after seeing her cut her grocery bills down to as low as $20 a week during the summer.
Growing food makes it possible for Toku to live in the city, pay her bills, keep up student-loan payments and even save some money, she said.
“I could be hungry, right,” said Toku, adding she is now not worried “about lacking in food or lacking anywhere else.”