Land acknowledgement

Sumac Community Food Centre is located in Toronto, on the territory of the Wendat, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas of the Credit. This land is now also home to many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. We do our work on lands where Indigenous peoples have been and continue to be in reciprocal relationship with the lands, waters, and all beings since time immemorial.

We are located where Sumac Creek once flowed across the land into Lake Ontario. The sumac plant’s bright red berries are used as food and medicine on Turtle Island and across the world. The name “Sumac Community Food Centre” honours Sumac Creek and celebrates the sumac plant’s gifts of food and medicine and its enduring relationship with this land.

As we put down roots here, we enter into relationships with our neighbours, plants, animals, and the land itself, and take on the shared responsibility of caring for it. Land and food are deeply connected, and when we care for the land, it nourishes us in return.

We also acknowledge the presence of those who arrived on Turtle Island as migrants, whether in this generation or in the past, and those who were brought here involuntarily as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The solidarity between Black and Indigenous communities reminds us of the importance of working together towards peace, equity, and collective care.