Alumni Digest / U of T / Ideas /
Food justice begins in the garden
Bavan Pushpalingam’s family garden became the starting point for research on food access, migration and the crops people call home.
Bavan Pushpalingam, whose food justice research began with family gardening in Scarborough.Photo: Don Campbell
The garden
Begin with what is close
Bavan Pushpalingam grew vegetables with his father in Scarborough after his family came from Sri Lanka. That garden offered more than produce: it held recipes, language and a way to stay connected to familiar food in a new place.
Years later, the memory became a research question. What happens when people can find food that fits their culture, budget and neighbourhood?
The food on a table can carry a map of migration, memory and who gets to feel at home.
The Alumni Digest read
The research
Follow food beyond the grocery aisle
Pushpalingam’s work looks at racialised food insecurity, youth access and the links between migration and cultural memory. Fieldwork in Sri Lanka, India, Ghana, Colombia and Mexico widened the frame without losing the local starting point.
That combination keeps food policy tangible. A map of access is also a map of time, transport, family knowledge and the crops a community knows how to grow.
The practice
Return research to the community
Through the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union Food Centre, Feed Scarborough and the Scarborough Hub for Innovation and Public Policy, Pushpalingam keeps research connected to people building alternatives now.
For alumni, the lesson is to let a place set the terms of the question. The strongest public work often begins with something ordinary enough to share across a table.
Source reporting
Inspired by his father, U of T Scarborough grad nourishes food security research and community work
Original summary by Alumni Digest, based on public source reporting. This independent publication is not affiliated with or endorsed by the University of Toronto. Source image retained for editorial review; rights clearance is still required before any broader reuse.
