Council Members

Adam Asmar

Adam Asmar

Operations Co-Lead

Adam is a perennial University student and employee. Currently finishing up his Masters Degree in Critical Disability Studies, Adam uses his lived experience with disability and his accrued academic experience to apply Disability Justice lenses to everything he interacts with in society. After 10 years of combined studies and employment at Toronto Metropolitan University, Adam is now at OCAD University. Throughout his personal and professional life, he applies food justice through his work, with a particular focus and passion for food insecurity in post secondary education. This looks like establishing food produce subscriptions for grad students at TMU, helping to establish a free food program during exam periods at TMU, and now working to continue to fill community fridges and pantries at OCAD and restarting their Hot Lunch program. In his personal life he also runs an instagram and TikTok account focused on saving money on groceries, culturally rich and easy meals, with an underlying focus on healthy eating. Check him out on @adamandhisyellowpan.

Allison Drage

Allison Drage

Operations Co-Lead

Ally (she/her) has always been passionate about Food Systems throughout Canada. At the University of British Columbia, she studied Global Resource Systems, exploring how nutrition and sustainable agriculture intertwine to create robust food systems. She then continued her education at Prescott College where she completed her Masters in Sustainable Food Systems and an MBA in Sustainable Business Leadership. Her goal is to remember the impact of food systems, food security, nutrition, and environmental wellbeing in our day to day lives, and that it is a right for all. Ally has worked at a number of for urban farms in Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver. While she loved in hands-on approach to small-scale agriculture, she recently starting working at Second Harvest where she helps ensure food that would otherwise be wasted in sent to non-profits across the country. In her free time, Ally coaches volleyball, loves to ski or bike, and tries to get outside as much as possible!

Amina Saher

Amina Saher

Fundraising Co-Lead

Currently pursuing a Master of Public Health in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Toronto, Amina is dedicated to advancing health equity and food security both locally and globally. Her experience in nutrition education, surplus food recovery, community-engaged research, and working with marginalized communities has deepened her understanding of the inequities and inefficiencies within our current food system. Amina believes in the power of community and collective action to drive food justice and systemic, transformative change. As a member of the TYFPC’s funding committee, she is excited to collaborate with community organizations to support initiatives that foster a healthier, more food-secure Toronto.

Andrea Ventura

Andrea Ventura

Communications & Advocacy Co-Chair

Andrea (she/her) is a through-and-through East-Ender of Tkaronto, and a first-generation daughter to parents from El Salvador. She’s always been crazy about refried beans (with photo evidence), and for the past thirteen years, crazy about hearty and savoury vegan meals. She runs a food blog about everything she eats and the vegan lifestyle she maintains, showcasing accessible and culturally diverse foods whilst maintaining an Intersectional lens. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies with a focus in Community and Culture, and is currently a Master’s candidate in Environmental Studies at York University researching food justice and food policy. Andrea has nonprofit experience in outreach, gardening, as well as working with unhoused folks in Mexico City. In her spare time, you can catch her taking photos of absolutely everything she eats, walking everywhere, as well as reading about how fungi will save the world.

Charlotte Gill

Charlotte Gill

Advocacy & Operations Co-Lead

Charlotte (She/Her) is a life-long city girl Torontonian with a yearning for a life on a farm. During her time at  Concordia University studying human environment and sustainability, she developed a strong interest and passion for sustainable food systems, including production methods that are harmonious with the natural environment, and supportive of local communities and economies (IE., anti-capitalist.) She has volunteered with a number of urban farms across Toronto and Montreal, as well as agroecological and permaculture farms with a focus on food sovereignty advocacy in Ecuador and Colombia.  Charlotte believes that access to culturally appropriate and healthy foods should be a priority for all levels of society and hopes to see a future career in supporting policy decisions and programs that support sustainable food production control, access and distribution on a broader scale. In her free time, Charlotte enjoys travel, being outdoors, lifting weights and cooking healthy vegetarian meals.

Eli Chin

Eli Chin

Fundraising Co-Lead

Eli (she/her) is incredibly passionate about connecting people to each other and the land they live on. Some of the ways she does this are through resource kits, educational programming, and grant writing to support food justice. While completing her undergraduate degree in Environmental and Urban Sustainability at Toronto Metropolitan University she partnered with Indigenous communities to uplift their voices and implement placemaking initiatives. Eli has worked for several years in the non-profit and charity sector developing programs to engage communities in conservation and ecological restoration stewardship. Whether it is through sustainable agricultural practices, conversations about food systems, or the implementation of green infrastructure Eli will always be there to advocate for a resilient future. She believes that through education and community action we can collectively make a positive impact on the environment.

Henry Khamonde

Outreach & Advocacy Co-Lead

Henry Khamonde is a keen, enthusiastic, and engaged learner. He is of South Sudanese descent and is a mama’s boy, which means he has had the pleasure of being embraced with warm, culturally-attuned, and nutrient-rich meals all his life. However, he realizes that not all share the same privileges that he does. Henry graduated from the University of Toronto Scarborough with a degree in Health Studies, which provided him with an all-encompassing understanding of the social determinants of health and the need to apply an intersectional lens to societal issues. During his undergrad, he worked as a research assistant to amplify and highlight the struggles that marginalized populations face as it relates to food security. The anecdotes, stories, and emotion around food and culinary practices can build and mobilize communities, and subsequently influence policy, and this is what Henry aims to focus on while at the TYFPC. Outside of his innate passion for food justice and food security, Henry is an avid pilates connoisseur, mental health advocate, he can debate you on any topics surrounding sports, and he enjoys Sabrina Carpenter’s discography.

Rojhin Taebi

Rojhin Taebi

Communications Co-Lead

Rojhin (She/Her) is a second-gen settler. She’s an avid writer and painter with a big, foodie heart, which she shares on her Insta blog @Saffron_Eatss. She is the organizer of Mother-Tongued Toronto, a poetry fundraiser centering BIPOC and Pan-Asian languages and storytelling, where she explored themes of mutual aid and food sharing through the lenses of love and desire.

Rojhin graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Professional Communications, focusing on intercultural relations and the cultural impacts of diaspora. She is an active volunteer in Toronto, contributing to charities such as Friends of Ruby and The 519. She currently works at a nonprofit as a Communications and Campaigns Coordinator.

She is also deeply passionate about food justice, urban agriculture, and the ways storytelling can drive meaningful change. As the Communications Co-Lead at the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, she is dedicated to amplifying youth voices in food policy, making conversations around food security more inclusive, and using digital media to build connections and inspire action.

Beyond her work in communications, Rojhin loves cooking and developing recipes for her loved ones with various dietary needs. Drawing from her family’s knowledge of naturopathy, she has learned the value of seasonal cooking and incorporating traditional wisdom to create nutritious meals.

Sally Chen

Sally Chen

Communications Co-Lead

Sally is a Registered Dietitian by day and a self-proclaimed foodie by night (and also day). She believes that food is not just nourishment but a way to connect, celebrate, and promote wellbeing. With a love for food that goes beyond nutrition, Sally is deeply committed to food security initiatives as she works to ensure that everyone not only has access to nutritious foods, but also the knowledge and skills to make informed, healthy choices. Sally combines her professional expertise in dietetics with a personal drive to make a difference. When not helping others optimize their health through food, Sally can be always be found exploring new recipes and enjoying the local food scenes.

Shimona Patel

Shimona Patel

Education Co-Lead

Shimona is a foodie and lifelong learner who is passionate about food systems and leveraging food as a medium to develop programming that address food insecurity and health. Her work spans over urban Canada and rural India– in Toronto, she has worked with post-secondary students in developing food based programming that address social isolation and has developed emergency food aid programming for low-income and immigrant populations. In India, she is the co-founder of Taradha Farms, an organization that focuses on transitioning agriculture to sustainable agroecological practices in addition to increasing market access for small scale farmers for increased economic development. Through her work, she is keen on amplifying values of connection, inter-dependence and inclusivity to build nourishing communities and systems.  Outside her professional endeavors, Shimona is a passionate baker, a yoga practitioner, enjoys reading and is an enthusiastic nature lover, often exploring the outdoors or planning her next travel adventure.

Suleekha Hirsi

Suleekha Hirsi

Education Co-Lead

Suleekha Hirsi (she/her) is passionate about community development, equity, and building more just and sustainable cities. She works to address barriers to affordable transportation, housing, food sovereignty, and public space access, centering marginalized communities in her advocacy. She has worked with the City of Toronto, Brampton, and nonprofits to develop programs that advance social justice and local empowerment.

She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in Political Science and Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies. Her commitment to food justice has led her to volunteer with community fridges and urban farms, supporting initiatives that promote food access for Black and marginalized communities.

Outside of her work, she loves staying active, whether it’s swimming, flag football, or trying out bouldering.  She’s always experimenting with new, nourishing recipes and is an avid film and t.v lover, often logging her silly reviews on letterboxd.  More than anything, she values community and finding ways to bring people together, whether through food, movement, or storytelling!

Qjiel Giuliano Mikhl Zamora

Qjiel Giuliano Mikhl Zamora

Outreach Co-Lead

Qjiel Giuliano Mikhl Zamora is an international Tentanda Via Scholar at York University pursuing Global Health. He strongly identifies with the indigenous groups of the Cagayan Valley in the Philippines, especially the Ibanag or the ‘River People’. Through intersecting the perspectives of indigenous people and policies on environmental health, Qjiel champions a rights-based approach in achieving planetary wellness. The threat of chemicals and plastics pollution may potentially harm the identity of tribes that have shared beliefs of the river as a living entity. These plastic particles further breakdown into microplastics are now inside our bloodstream which parallels back to why rivers are sacred because blood does the same to bring life all over the body. They can cross the blood-brain barrier, testicles, heart, lungs, and even the placenta. Qjiel has done lectures and TV appearances about microplastics globally to support knowledge translation of the plastics crises among different disciplines. He has appeared in the UNICEF Children’s Environmental Health Collaborative report on Generation Plastic where he shared about the indigenous connections of plastic pollution and health. Being a new settler to Canada, he is passionate about helping international students and newcomers navigating food initiatives so that they will not feel hungry in Toronto.