The Line · the University of Alberta Alumni Association

Episode 9: Feeding the Community With Morgan Allen, ’19 BSc(Nutr/Food)

May 28, 2020·20 min·2 clips

Premier Kenny warned against hoarding as panic buying emptied shelves, revealing how quickly food security can unravel.

The episode opens with an archival government audio clip from March 2020 urging Albertans not to hoard food, using it as a springboard to discuss how food insecurity predates the pandemic for many residents. Host Matt Ray introduces Fresh Roots, a non-profit social enterprise that provides dignified access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food in communities facing economic or physical barriers. Morgan Allen, a University of Alberta nutrition graduate and Fresh Roots Edmonton City Lead, explains that the organization operates a mobile grocery store — a one-ton truck stocked with fresh produce purchased from grocers before it reaches store shelves — that sets up pop-up markets in underserved communities. She describes her role as largely relationship-based, working with the City of Edmonton's Community Development Social Work team to identify need and coordinate service launches. Morgan traces her passion for food security to a second or third-year university course called the cultural ecology of food, which shifted her understanding of nutrition from individual dietary choices to the social, cultural, and community dimensions of food access. She describes her work at Fresh Roots as rewarding but nonlinear, with uncertainty being a constant feature of community-based work. When COVID-19 hit, Morgan recalls the shift happening within days — from a hypothetical concern to a full operational crisis requiring back-to-back meetings with her Calgary team. Because the mobile grocery store's community-gathering model conflicted with social distancing guidelines, most stops were shut down, with only two continuing in altered form: one at the University of Alberta and one in Northeast Edmonton. Fresh Roots responded with three new service models. The first was a door-to-door grocery delivery service for residents in buildings where they already had an established customer base, using order forms and contactless drop-offs. The second was a COVID emergency delivery program offering set food boxes — containing produce like carrots, potatoes, apples, oranges, and bananas, plus eggs and bread — to people isolating due to COVID exposure or heightened vulnerability. A GoFundMe campaign, initially targeting $2,500, far exceeded its goal and allowed Fresh Roots to offer both affordable and fully subsidized access to these boxes, resulting in nearly 2,500 boxes assembled and deliveries to close to 1,300 homes. The third service was a bulk food orders program in collaboration with Indigenous communities near Calgary and in low-income or subsidized housing, operated as a drive-through model so recipients never had to leave their vehicles. Morgan expresses concern about the long-term sustainability of the fully subsidized box program and the potential loss of volunteers as people return to work. She outlines the health and safety protocols for volunteers, including screening questionnaires, face masks, hand sanitization, distanced workstations, and contactless delivery procedures. The host closes by reflecting that the phrase 'we're all in this together' can obscure the unequal ways the pandemic affects different populations, and encourages listeners to volunteer with Fresh Roots. Morgan ends on a personal note, mentioning she has taken up guitar and is learning two songs, while reaffirming her commitment to supporting fellow Edmontonians through the crisis.

As heard by us

A plainspoken look at food access, panic buying, and the logistics of dignity.

This episode follows a pandemic era question that begins in grocery aisles and settles into the quieter mechanics of food access. Morgan traces Fresh Roots from a mobile grocery model to direct delivery and emergency service, and the March panic buying scene gives the story its…

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A grounded look at how Fresh Roots adapted food access under pandemic pressure.

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