Food Insecurity in Canada

wn / 2022
From Essays

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many social issues, one of them being the crisis of food insecurity. Food insecurity is a blanket term used to describe a variety of food and health related problems. Namely, it is defined by Health Canada as the inability to acquire or consume an adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so. Important factors here include acquiring sufficient healthy foods and uncertainty. These shortcomings are represented by financial instability due to unemployment, or sudden and unexpected rises of costs in the household. In understanding food insecurity, it is key to highlight that it may be experienced in both long term severity and intermittent intervals. 

Studies from Second Harvest show that food insecurity has risen dramatically from 2019. Reaching levels unparalleled, it is estimated that one in seven families in Canada face food insecurity every day. This statistic is in accordance with global trends. As the COVID-19 pandemic effects households financial stability, food has become a more difficult thing to pay for worldwide. At the worst of these causes are chronic levels of hunger and malnutrition. It is vastly important that our organization adapt our mission to address this issue. Food is a major part and indicator of public health. Our resources and connections render us truly capable of being effective advocates for this growing and timely crisis, and from this moment forward we will be executing new strategies to promote its resolve.


A Focused Discussion

In British Columbia food insecurity arises in many domains. The downtown east-side of Vancouver for example, features thousands of individuals experiencing extreme homelessness, including problems with not only food but shelter, mental illness, and addiction. The case of the downtown east-side calls always for solutions of all kinds: short term relief, community building, and macro-level changes to systems. While this case of the downtown east-side is extreme and persistent, food insecurity appears in other facets as well. Food banks in Canada are accessed by all kinds of people and households. 1 in 10 households in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health regions were food insecure, while this number in other regions such as the Island, the Interior, and the North, is closer to 1 in 4. These situations are characterized by unstable family income, unexpected events like disability or COVID-19, food shortages and distribution problems, climate change and more. Of course, as a public interest organization, we could be effective at helping this cause at any level: short term relief, community building, or instigating systematic changes through policy and large scale advocacy. However, based on recent findings and reports, I will present a strategy which advocates for helping food insecurity in communal pathways. The plan is that this will also produce collateral impacts indirectly on public policy for the greater movements within social action.

An important, empirical finding presented in an editorial recently stated that food banks outnumber grocery stores in Canada 4 to 1. In short, this means more Canadians rely on food banks now, and increasingly, less are able to pay for groceries at stores. Some 5.3 million Canadians are served at charitable food banks every year, this number following COVID-19 has risen to 6.6 million. With the knowledge of food and reliance on charitable organizations, we must find a way to help Canadians access food. With the abundance of food banks, there is no shortage of food, there is a shortage of food that is affordable. To deal with the food crisis, we need to find ways that empower individuals and households so that they can afford healthy and nutritious food from grocery stores.

The priority and scope of our focus should deal with educating the public on food insecurity. Education that inspires community leaders and activists has large efficacy potential. Along with the information already present in this report, we must focus our communication to emphasize solutions. Solutions-based messaging is proven to be more effective when it comes to severe problems, such as climate change for example. Based on research, respondents are much more likely to act when they feel as if they can make a difference. This is the central concept of our communication: our audience can make a difference. Furthermore, we must emphasize in our communication general and concrete steps people can take to actually assist in the cause.