Sara Edge

I am a community-engaged, interdisciplinary researcher with training in health geography and environmental equity. My work aims to contribute towards creating more sustainable and equitable access to environmental and social resources that support human health and wellbeing. In September of 2024 I became the Arrell Chair in Food, Policy & Society at the University of Guelph where I critically focus on issues related to food insecurity and food justice.

Cascading crises including climate change, the pandemic, inflation, recent tariff disputes and geopolitical conflict are undermining food systems and food affordability. In Canada 10 million people are food insecure or nearly a quarter of the population, with disproportionate impacts upon Black, immigrant, and Indigenous populations along with other intersecting marginalized groups.

I work with community groups, governmental organizations and other stakeholders to strengthen equity, justice and resiliency in food systems and food access. My current work seeks to explore the role of community food infrastructure (e.g. food hubs, food centres) in strengthening food system resilience, poly-crisis preparedness and national security. My work also seeks to cast attention onto novel examples of community self-determination, entrepreneurialism and collaboration, and their role in strengthening food security, food sovereignty and alternative food access pathways.

As a geographer I am also interested in how food access challenges and opportunities differ across rural, suburban and metropolitan food systems and geographies. This includes examining how decision-makers are planning for increasing diversity in small to large cities amidst changing migration settlement patterns.

• GEOG*3320 Food Systems: Security & Sustainability
• GEOG*6340 Human-Environment Relations

Dr. Jenelle Regnier-Davies, SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow

Ekow Ashun-Stone, MA

Pauline Cripps, MA

Ummay Huni-Sumi, MA

Maya James, MA

Luca Galler, MEnvSc (Co-Supervised with Dr. Thomas Graham)

Edge, S., & Regnier-Davies, J. (2026). Community food systems are critical to Canada's national security. Policy Options. Available at: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2026/04/food-security-gap/

Regnier-Davies, J., Cripps, P. & Edge, S. (2026). Canada has alternatives to corporate grocery chains. Here’s what governments can learn from them. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/canada-has-alternatives-to-corporate-grocery-chains-heres-what-governments-can-learn-from-them-282521

Edge, S., et al. (2026). Ethnic food retail and immigrant wellbeing: a relational understanding of Chinese migrants’ food access in Toronto, Canada. Food, Culture & Society, 29(4), 1156–1179. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2026.2638596

Dean, J; Stenberg, K; Wilson, K; Edge, S; Ghassemi, E. (2026). Attracting and retaining immigrants outside of gateway cities: The importance of economic opportunities and amenities in smaller communities in Ontario, Canada. Journal of International Migration & Integration. Vol. 27, 1087–1109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-025-01338-x

Jenelle Regnier-Davies; Sara Edge. (2025). "We shouldn't always have to be resilient": A critical discourse analysis of food system resilience and equity in Toronto, Ontario, in an era of global polycrisis. Canadian Food Studies.

Mei-Ling Patterson, Sara Edge. (2025). Exploring attention to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in Canadian environmental nonprofits: implications for racialized migrants. Local Environment: 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2025.2467874

Amber Grant, Sara Edge, Andrew A. Millward, Lara A. Roman, Cheryl Teelucksingh. (2024). Centering community perspectives to advance recognitional justice in urban environments: Lessons from urban forest practice. Sustainability. 16(4915)

Sara Edge, Zhixi Zhuang, Jennifer Dean. (2024). Reshaping essential public spaces and services: Towards socio-spatial justice in a post-pandemic era. Town Planning Review.

Jennfer Dean, Sara Edge. (2024). Migration and wellbeing in and of place. Wellbeing, Space & Society. 6(100199)

Jenelle Regnier-Davies, Sara Edge. (2024). Harnessing food system equity from the ground up: shifting co-governance practices in the funding of food security responses during the pandemic crisis in Toronto, Canada. Food, Culture & Society. : 1-23.

Sara Edge, Claire Davis, Jennifer Dean, Yemisi Onilude, Andrea Rishworth, Kathi Wilson. (2023). The role of urban and rural greenspaces in shaping immigrant wellbeing and settlement in place. Wellbeing, Space & Society. 4(100127)

Paige Robillard, Fatih Sekercioglu, Sara Edge, lan Young. (2023). Resilience in the face of crisis: investigating COVID-19 impacts on urban community gardens in Greater Toronto Area, Canada. British Food Journal. 125(11): 4048-4061. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-02-2023-0179

Regnier-Davies, J., Edge, S., Yu, H.M.M., Austin, N., Nasr, J., Daley, A., & Koc, M. (2022). Towards equity and resiliency in a post-pandemic urban food system in Toronto, Canada: the role and value of community based organizations in driving the COVID-19 emergency food security responses. Urban Governance. 2: 336-346. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2022.10.003

Claire Davis, Sara Edge. (2022). Sustainable greenspaces must be equitable and inclusive: interrogating the moral management & policing of queer communities in urban parks. The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 19(15505) http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315505

Regnier-Davies, J., Austin, N., & Edge, S. (2022). The intersection of structure and agency within charitable food programs in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic: cultivating systemic change. Critical Public Health. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2022.2130740

Jennifer Dean, Zhixi Cecilia Zhuang, Sara Edge. (2021). From Classrooms to Boardrooms: Applying a multi-scale coordinated approach to an anti-racist future for the Canadian planning system. Plan Canada. 61(4): 21-24.

Zhixi Cecilia Zhuang, Sara Edge, Jennifer Dean. (2021). What Is the Future of Public Space? Hidden Stories of Immigrant Suburbs during a Global Pandemic. Town Planning Review. 92(2): 229-237. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2020.69

Edge, Sara; Brown, Emily Lauren; Ghosh, Sutama; Murnaghan, Ann Marie. (2020). Procedural environmental (in)justice at multiple scales: Examining immigrant advocacy for improved living conditions. Local Environment. 25(9): 666-680. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2020.1812554

Sara Edge, Samantha Meyer. (2019). Pursuing dignified food security through novel collaborative governance initiatives: perceived benefits, tensions and lessons learned. Social Science & Medicine. 232: 77-85. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/i.socscimed.2019.04.038

Patel, A., Dean, J., Edge, S., Ghassemi, E., & Wilson, K. (2019). Double Burden of rural migration in Canada? Considering the health impacts of immigrant settlement outside the Cosmopolis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 16(5): 678. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.3390/ijerph16050678

Meyer, Samantha., Edge, Sara., Beatty, Jocelyn, Leatherdale, S., Perlman, C., Dean, J., Ward, P.R. and Kirkpatrick, S. (2017). Challenges to evidence-based health promotion: a case study of a Food Security Coalition in Ontario, Canada. Health Promotion International. 33(5): 760-769. http://dx.doi.org/doi: 10.1093/heapro/dax011

I welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students (MA or PhD) who share my interests in examining innovative solutions to building more sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems across urban and rural spaces. I am particularly interested in community-driven, equity focused initiatives, the role of entrepreneurialism, social enterprise, collaboration, and the potential of hub-based programming and infrastructure. Increasingly my work is focusing on the role of community food infrastructure in strengthening polycrisis preparedness and national security.

Please email your inquiries to me directly and include a CV/resume and brief statement of your interests. Also please note that unfortunately due to current challenges related to Canada's recent immigration policy that priority will be given to domestic students.