To Feed A City is purposed to paint a present-day landscape of alternative food systems in Hamilton, Ontario and relate them to the principles and values of community food security. The inspiration for this project came upon realizing that the stories of Hamilton’s bourgeoning alternative food movement had yet to be captured in any permanent way, and consequently, have not been widely celebrated or learnt from.

The community devoted to this movement has recognized the imbalances of dominant food systems and is enabling a shift away from those systems which propagate disparities towards alternative systems which reconcile our food with principles of health, sustainability, justice, sense of place, and community.

This work is a condensed version of my honours undergraduate thesis. It offers an experiential perspective on alternative food systems and community food security, a definition of the latter and framework for understanding the former, as well as an assessment of Hamilton’s alternative food systems in relation to the imperatives of community food security and food democracy.