When she set out to design a new program for transgender people of colour, Yasmeen Persad knew food should be at the heart of it.

As the trans program co-ordinator at The 519 community centre in The Village, Persad had recently led the Trans Sex Worker Empowerment Project, where the food options for participants had become a subject of some dissatisfaction.

“We’re tired of sandwiches,” Persad remembers them saying.

Although grateful to be fed, participants, many of whom had come to Canada from other countries, clamoured for more adventurous offerings.

“We realized there was a gap in the way the food was representing folks,” Persad says.

So when Persad pitched a new program specifically for trans people of colour, she made food the focus. Cooking With Trans-Identified People of Colour launched two-and-a-half years ago and has become a popular, weekly drop-in at The 519 every Tuesday afternoon. Funding for the program runs out in June, but Persad is hopeful it will be continued.

The program is intended “to support and foster sexual health promotion among racialized trans people,” but food is how the conversations start. Preparing and eating a meal together not only brings people together, Persad says, it also fosters a safe and welcoming space to discuss other issues.

The program, which is free, also focuses on the particular nutritional needs of people living with HIV or going through hormone therapy.

Food is often an afterthought for community organizers who, usually with a limited budget, are trying to support marginalized communities with programs that are mainly focused on addressing big, complicated issues. Persad and company flipped that idea, using food to open up a space for other discussions. The conversations are informal and open ended, ranging from housing issues, to sexual health, to the best place to go for waxing.

But participants can also come simply for the food, Persad says. The program is, at its heart, simply a space where trans people of colour can get together and support each other.

“You don’t have to talk,” she says. “You can just focus on the food. But your presence is still here. Sometimes people come in and they say five words and that’s it for three hours, but they’re still part of a group where they feel represented. They’re still able to be here and listen.”

About 10 to 15 people attend the drop-in sessions each week, according to The 519. The 519 is planning to publish a cookbook named after the program in the spring. It will include favourite recipes, stories about the group’s peer leaders and sexual health information.

Simply having a space dedicated to racialized trans people is important, says Soofia Mahmoud, The 519’s director of strategic communications.

“Trans folks are some of the most marginalized communities all over the world, including Canada,” she said. “But racialized trans people, especially trans women of colour, are disproportionately represented in terms of being the target of violence, homelessness and unemployment.”

The program also aims to address food insecurity among trans people of colour, who often face barriers to accessing healthy, affordable food, Persad says. In addition to the meal available at the drop-in, participants are also able to take a second meal home with them. Persad says it can be intimidating for some trans people to use a food bank, where they could be misgendered or otherwise treated differently because of how they look.

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Persad, who has worked in trans advocacy for more than 15 years, says that while there has been significant progress in terms of legal rights for trans people, “the fight is ongoing” when it comes to the on-the-ground reality.

“There are still barriers in day-to-day life,” she said, adding she hopes programs like hers are among those that help trans people to “find a way to be resilient and to love themselves.”