Today, More Canadians Suffer From Food Insecurity Than Ever Before
According to Statistics Canada’s 2017-18 Canadian Community Health Survey, 1 in 8 Canadian households were found to be food insecure. This number represents a whopping 4.4 million Canadians (which is an underestimate as the survey did not include three subject groups).
But what exactly is food insecurity?
Well, food insecurity is a term used to refer to insufficient access to food as a result of financial constraints. In the study, what determined a household’s ‘food security status’ included concerns about not having sufficient funds to afford a nutritious or balanced diet, worry about going hungry or missing meals, and in more severe cases, not being able to eat for days on end due to food insecurity.
The questions in this survey may suggest that food insecurity can easily be resolved by programs that make food more affordable, accessible, or free. However, this is a problem that goes beyond just a lack of food: food-insecure households must refrain from spending on other various kinds of necessities, such as necessary medication or housing, in order to simply afford food.
Who’s at the greatest risk?
Households with lower incomes are at a higher risk for food insecurity - including Indigenous and Black households which are particularly affected - representative of the damaging effects of colonialism and structural racism in the country. Furthermore, roughly 60% of households who reported their primary source of income as social assistance were found to be food insecure.
While 84% of those surveyed affected by food insecurity reside in either Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, or British Columbia, there are obvious geographic disparities in levels of food insecurity.
In fact, Nunavut experiences more food insecurity than any other part of Canada - with 57% of the territory’s households reporting some degree of food insecurity, and nearly half of these households suffering from severe food insecurity (in other words, complete food deprivation). The area with the lowest prevalence of household food insecurity was the province of Quebec, with just 11%.
Moreover, food insecurity was found to be more common in households that had children compared to households without - and families experiencing the highest rates of food insecurity were those with one-parent women.
How do we solve Canada’s household food insecurity problem?
Firstly, we need to work from the fundamental root causes of this problem.
This means that food programs are not going to be a sufficient solution. We need solutions based on evidence; to address not only the ‘food problem’ - but the financial constraints and what exactly is leading to this food insecurity on such a grand scale.
Secondly, the Canadian governments should be re-evaluating the effectiveness of income support causes for low-income households.
For example, a recent study by PROOF regarding the Canada Child Benefit suggests that while the newly implemented federal benefit was able to reduce severe food insecurity among low-income households with children, it did not succeed in making them food-secure. Other federal programs such as the Canada Workers Benefit should also be re-evaluated in order to ensure optimal effectiveness in protecting low-income Canadians from food insecurity.
Lastly, the provincial and territorial governments should be creating policies designed to ensure that low-income Canadians most vulnerable to food insecurity are equipped with adequate funds to live comfortably.
With such varying levels of food insecurity among Canada’s provinces and territories, it only makes it that much clearer that there is a problem that needs to be addressed through government action.
This is a health problem, above all else.
Food-insecure Canadians, especially those severely deprived of food, are experiencing the profound negative effects it poses on systemic wellbeing. In children, severe food insecurity has been associated with a subsequent development of a range of chronic health conditions such as asthma and depression. Among adults, high food insecurity is correlated to a higher prevalence of chronic diseases including mental health issues, arthritis, asthma, and diabetes - and this in turn places more pressure on our health care system.
It’s about time we take the food insecurity problem much more seriously!