Wellness for All & Respect for the Earth

Community Natural Foods has always been a place of community, connection and wellness which has welcomed all Calgarians for more than 40 years.

As an organization, we acknowledge that systematic racism exists. It exists in America, here in Canada, and more locally it exists here in Calgary. As an organization we also know that good intentions are not enough. We must commit to actively participating in solving these long-term systematic issues by acting as an example within the city of doing the right thing.

Despite our best efforts to be inclusive, we know that we can do more and that we have our own issues to correct. We acknowledge that our senior leadership does not effectively represent the diversity of our broad community and that Black and Indigenous voices have not had a voice at decision making tables. We acknowledge that senior roles within our organization are disproportionality filled by white men. We acknowledge that our team has not spent the time necessary to understand and educate ourselves on the issues of racism and discrimination. We acknowledge that there has not been enough space or time set aside for conversations on topics like racism and discrimination.

We also acknowledge that we don’t have the answers to any of these systematic issues, and that we won’t be able to successfully address any of these issues without first committing to listening and learning from members of marginalized communities. As first steps today we want to announce three specific areas and ways that we intend to respond to these acknowledgements.

1) The first is to commit to listening:

-        Committing to 1/1 conversations with staff on topics of racism, prejudice, and oppression

-        Committing to hosting focus groups with groups of staff on topics of racism, prejudice, and oppression

-        Committing to engaging with leaders from the BIPOC community who can provide feedback on any initiatives intended to drive us forward as an organization

 

2) The second is to commit to learning

Committing to reading books on the topics of racism, prejudice and oppression including:

        o   Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

        o   Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

        o   How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

        o   White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

        o   Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics Of Starvation, And The Loss Of Aboriginal Life by James Daschuk

Committing to listening to podcasts and watching documentaries on the topics of racism, prejudice and oppression including:

        o   YYC Colours - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ndRnIrmtwM

        o   The Skin We're In: Pulling back the curtain on racism in Canada - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoBTIv1VqM

        o   The Unlearning Channel - https://soundcloud.com/theunlearningchannel

        o   Colour Code - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/colour-code-podcast-race-in-canada/article31494658/

Committing to sharing what we are learning from the resources above actively on our staff intranet

3) The third is to commit to action:

    -   Committing to the creation of a diversity committee who will present opportunities for improvement to senior management on a quarterly basis

    -   Committing to the use of gender pronouns on signatures

    -   Committing to always appropriately acknowledging territorial history and rights when hosting events

    -   Committing to investing into bystander intervention training

    -   Committing to investing into anti-racism training

    -   Committing to actively investing into development opportunities for members of marginalized communities

Additionally, we expect our list of commitments to action to grow and change as we go through the process of both listening and learning. With that, should you have any recommendations for additions to any of the lists above we will always welcome them.