Leadership Lab Do you work in a non-profit? Now’s the time to convince your directors to push for political change Paul Taylor Published April 20, 2021 Paul Taylor is the executive director of FoodShare Toronto, a non-profit that advocates for food justice by supporting community-based food initiatives. He is the leadership lab columnist for April, 2021. “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.” I’ve long admired this quote from Dom Helder Camara, the Brazilian Catholic archbishop, because I’ve often faced this paradox in my own work. Many people are happy to write cheques to a soup kitchen or donate cans of food, but when you ask them to challenge systems that have kept people food insecure for generations, they become defensive. “Why are you getting so political?” they ask. “Aren’t you a charity?”