As a child, Bavan Pushpalingam would help tend vegetables at his family's Scarborough home - first on their small apartment balcony and, later, in the backyard.
He learned early about the importance of food from his appa (father), a former farmer who came to Canada as a refugee after the Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka. Years later, those lessons would shape Pushpalingam's path as a researcher focused on food justice.
"My appa gardens all the time and I always help him out," says Pushpalingam, who graduated from the University of Toronto Scarborough this month with a major in public policy and minors in food studies and urban governance. "It's such an important part of our family life and my relationship to food."
Today, the family still grows culturally significant crops in their backyard garden, including varieties of okra, eggplant, bitter gourd and herbs unavailable in many grocery stores. Those experiences, along with volunteering at local food banks, sparked Pushpalingam's interest in food justice and food sovereignty - work that has taken him from community gardens and food banks in Scarborough to research projects in Sri Lanka, India, Ghana, Colombia and Mexico.
He combined his community organizing experience with academic research at U of T Scarborough, exploring issues including racialized food insecurity, youth access to food and the relationship between food, migration and cultural memory. Working alongside organizations including the Scarborough Campus Students' Union Food Centre and Feed Scarborough , he aimed to make the research practical. One early project focused on food insecurity among racialized youth in Scarborough during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I wanted my research to have an impact so that it could be used by these community organizations in their own programming," he says.
His research later expanded internationally through fieldwork with farmers, activists and other community organizers. Using interviews, focus groups and ethnographic approaches, he explored topics including gendered food insecurity and grassroots food sovereignty initiatives.
The work was supported through major scholarships and fellowships, including the Laidlaw Leadership and Research Scholarship, the Shastri Indo-Canadian Student Research Fellowship and funding through SDGs@UofT , a U of T institutional strategic initiative working to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
His research has also earned international recognition. Earlier this year, Pushpalingam travelled to Dublin where he received two undergraduate research awards recognizing his work on food justice and community-engaged scholarship.
Closer to home, he was also named a rising star by the Scarborough Walk of Fame, an honour recognizing young community leaders. "It was really meaningful to be recognized by the community that raised me and where I proudly call home."
He also credits U of T Scarborough's interdisciplinary programs and community-focused approach with shaping his academic interests and career ambitions.
"I never thought I would be able to do this type of work during my undergrad," he says. "When I got to UTSC, academia began to feel much more accessible to me at a time when I didn't even know what a career in research could look like."
He notes that several faculty members played key roles in supporting his journey, including food studies faculty and researchers Siera Vercillo, Nino Bariola and Jeffrey Pilcher, along with political science faculty members Aisha Ahmad, Titilayo Soremi and Christopher Cochrane.
Beyond the classroom, Pushpalingam founded the Scarborough Hub for Innovation and Public Policy (SHIPP), helping organize youth-focused policy summits on issues affecting Scarborough. He describes SHIPP's inaugural Emerging Perspectives Youth Summit in 2024 as one of the defining experiences of his undergraduate career, reinforcing his belief in creating opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in community-based research and policymaking.
Looking ahead, Pushpalingam is considering graduate studies in fields such as geography, anthropology or political science, with plans to continue research focused on food systems, migration and community engagement.
He credits the close-knit community at U of T Scarborough for helping to make that future possible.
"I wouldn't have been able to do much of what I've done if I wasn't at UTSC," he says. "The work that people are doing here is very community-centred."
