CSU to give over $160,000 to grassroots farming initiatives and Concordia research group

Three Concordia-related initiatives to receive funding from the union’s SSAELC Fund

NewsHannah Scott-Talib — Published December 12, 2025 0 minutes

The funding, which will come from the Student Space, Accessible Education, and Legal Contingency (SSAELC) Fund, aims to financially assist two grassroots farming initiatives in the Montreal community, as well as the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) at Concordia. The SSAELC Fund finances large-scale projects by and for the student body.

A commitment to promoting sustainable food initiatives 

The first motion of the night, brought forward by CSU sustainability coordinator Mia Kennedy, sought to have the CSU allocate $79,241 towards Sankofa Farming Cooperative and Hamidou Horticulture. 

According to Sankofa Farming Cooperative member Tamia Thompson, who attended the RCM, Sankofa is a Black-Indigenous, non-hierarchical, worker-run non-profit organization rooted in ancestral practice and sustainable, slow-growth. The farm delivers fresh produce to Black-Indigenous communities of Montreal and addresses food insecurity through free produce distribution, youth programming and more. 

Sankofa operates from two locations, one on Concordia’s Loyola Campus and the other in Senneville, Quebec, just outside of Montreal. 

As Thompson explained, the collective seeks financial aid from the SSAELC Fund to maintain several paid working positions at the farm, including a farm operations coordinator, outreach coordinator, programming coordinator, admin coordinator and finance coordinator. In total, $50,000 of the SSAELC Fund would go towards these positions. 

Falling under the same motion, Hamidou Horticulture social media manager Ember Capistran Beede, who also attended the RCM, brought up the need for funding for an HR coordinator for 20 hours a week. This would help manage the initiative’s Loyola Campus-based operations, according to Beede. 

“This will alleviate pressure on our other projects, allowing us to hit our goals for this year, which include implementing an inventory management system, reorganizing our fields and our greenhouse production, as well as improving our self-promotion,” Beede said. 

Beede added that Hamidou supplied Concordia's free-meal initiative, The People’s Potato, with 25 kilograms of produce biweekly over the past summer, and that 75 per cent of all Hamidou’s produce grown in their Loyola field goes to the Concordia Farmers’ Market. 

As written in the motion, Hamidou Horticulture asked for $29,241 from the SSAELC Fund to maintain its HR coordinator position. 

The motion to fund Sankofa Farming Cooperative and Hamidou Horticulture passed, with 61.2 per cent of councillors voting in favour and 38.8 per cent voting against. 

Maintaining booking spaces at QPIRG Concordia 

A second motion, calling for QPIRG Concordia to obtain $86,000 from the SSAELC Fund, was presented by QPIRG finance and development coordinator Wade Walker. 

According to its website, QPIRG Concordia is a resource centre for student and community research and organizing that strives to raise awareness and support grassroots activism around diverse social and environmental issues. 

Walker added that the organization’s work draws from anti-oppression analysis and practice, and is student-funded, volunteer-driven and independent from Concordia’s administration and student unions. 

Walker continued that QPIRG offers a wide variety of resources to students, such as art supplies, a library and archive, certain technical equipment, free printing, childcare supplies and three different rooms for Concordia students or other community groups to rent to “gather and organize” in. 

“We can’t count the number of times that people have told us how valuable it is to have this space that they can come to, that they will not be charged for and that they can safely and comfortably meet in,” Walker said. 

Walker said that the group hopes to maintain their current space until they can eventually move to the CSU’s new student building when renovations conclude, but that they will need additional funding to help ease the burden of their current space’s rent to do so. 

According to the motion, the $86,000 QPIRG Concordia requested from the SAELCC Fund would go towards paying for half of the group’s commercial rent over a period of 24 months. 

“If we are not able to access this funding, we will most likely have to drastically cut a lot of these projects,” Walker said. “This is especially relevant with the uncertainty of enrolment these days, where enrolment in future years seems to keep going down. That directly impacts our budget. We’re a fee levy.”

The motion passed by 56 per cent, with 14 councillors voting in favour and 11 voting against.

Motion to address low CSU voter turnout postponed

Newly-elected councillor Ryan Michon proposed a third motion to increase voter turnout in the CSU elections. 

Michon’s motion cited that, in order to increase voter turnout and electoral transparency, the CSU executive committee should be required to submit a formal, written request to Concordia’s administration asking that the administration actively assist the CSU’s electoral processes through announcing critical election and voting information to the student body by means of university-wide student mailing lists, newsletters and more. 

However, following concerns voiced by several members of the CSU executive team, councillors unanimously voted in favour of postponing the motion until the new year. 

“In last year’s general elections, I actually had to take the administration to court in order to give us the right to have polling stations on campus, and they legally fought us on the grounds that they didn’t think that was necessary,” said CSU external affairs and mobilization coordinator Danna Ballantyne. “I’m very reluctant to rely on [the administration] in these ways.”

Two new councillors appointed to CSU committees

Following the stepping down of independent councillor Alexandrah Cardona from the Loyola committee and the sustainability committee, two councillors were appointed to fill the newly opened positions. 

Councillor Chana Leah Natanblut was appointed to the Loyola Committee, with councillors voting 13-7 in favour of her appointment. 

For the sustainability committee, councillors Dave Plant and Ashley Steinwald ran against each other, with Plant earning the position through a narrow win of 14 votes to Steinwald’s 12. 

The RCM adjourned at 10:53 p.m.