Modifying the Japanese <i>Kodomo Shokudo</i> Model for Urban Indigenous Communities: Insights from an Activist Scholar

Kodomo Shokudo is a Japanese community-based, grassroots response to urban food insecurity and social pathologies that include youth and elder isolation and the lack of transfer of knowledge and skills. The feasibility of its modification for urban Indigenous communities in which the author was already engaged as an activist scholar is presented in a case study format using an Indigenist food justice praxis. A discussion of the process and outcomes of implementation of the program in six cities in the United States and Canada is presented. The case studies illuminate the challenges and opportunities presented throughout the implementation process, along with the benefits of establishing these foodscapes. The case studies are driven by relational methodologies that are a core component in Indigenist research.