Food Insecurity Blanket
Fibre art, fused plastic bags, mixed media
Calgary, Alberta
The Food Insecurity Blanket is a fibre art piece constructed from fused plastic grocery bags — the kind you get at food banks and discount stores. The work makes visible the invisible: the daily reality of food insecurity wrapped in the disposable materials that accompany it. A blanket that cannot warm you, made from bags that cannot nourish you.
The piece connects Melisa's fibre arts practice to her food justice advocacy. The material choice is deliberate — plastic bags are ubiquitous, disposable, and associated with the cheapest forms of food access. By transforming them into a blanket (an object of comfort and care), the work asks viewers to sit with the contradiction between what we need and what systems provide.
This project exemplifies the "artivist" approach: using art materials and craft processes to make social and political realities tangible, not as illustration of an issue but as a material embodiment of it.
The Situation
Food insecurity is an abstract concept for many Canadians — a statistic rather than a felt experience. Melisa wanted to make the daily reality of food insecurity tangible through the very materials that accompany it: the packaging, netting, and disposable wrapping that people handle every time they buy food. The Nooks & Crannies Festival in Okotoks (2023), with its requirement that all materials be recycled or repurposed, provided the perfect context.
The Approach
The Food (In)Security Blanket is a 4-foot by 8-foot fibre sculpture created by stitching together produce packaging and repurposed netting collected from grocery stores and individuals. Hidden underneath the blanket is a small papier mache representation of a tomato plant inside an old, diced tomato can — a quiet reminder that food starts as something grown, not something packaged. The temporary outdoor installation was accompanied by a performative social action (with Sharon Fortowsky as 2Peaz): a seed planting and plant care pledge where participants received cilantro and parsley seeds, planting materials, and a postcard with a plant care pledge and salsa recipe.
The Challenges
Collecting enough produce packaging to construct a 4'x8' sculpture required sustained effort and community participation. The challenge of making a blanket — an object of comfort — from the uncomfortable materials of food packaging created a productive tension: this "blanket" cannot warm you, just as the food system cannot adequately nourish everyone it claims to serve.
The Impact
The piece was exhibited at the Nooks & Crannies Festival (July 22 – August 27, 2023) and subsequently at the Earth Hour event at the main branch of the Calgary Public Library (2025). The seed planting companion activity connected the critique of food insecurity to practical food-growing action — participants didn't just witness art about the problem, they took home the materials to grow their own food.
Lessons Learned
The Food Insecurity Blanket confirmed that everyday waste materials can be transformed into powerful commentary without losing their material honesty — viewers recognize produce netting and grocery packaging, and that recognition is what gives the work its force. The companion seed planting activity demonstrated that art addressing food insecurity is strongest when it offers participants agency alongside awareness.