Surviving Food Insecurity in Canada

The Cost of Deferment: Canada’s Problem with Food Insecurity 

by Kael Blackburn

The last several years have brought the cost-of-living crisis in Canada into the forefront. The ramifications of the covid-19 pandemic only exacerbated a continually worsening problem. Many Canadians are struggling to afford the many basic necessities required for a comfortable life. Housing, fuel costs and of course food have been the most impacted goods by the recent burgeoning inflation rates. For younger generations owning a house is increasingly becoming a pipe-dream, and soaring rent costs are pushing people out of major cities. When goods become expensive people are forced to make decisions on what they spend their money on. Often times when this occurs people cut out what they believe isn’t an absolute necessity or something they can forgo for a short while. When people make that decision, it is usually food they decide to skip on. This is but one example of food insecurity. The unfortunate reality is that this is far from a recent phenomenon, covid has certainly impacted a rise in food insecurity of late but it has persisted in Canada for far too long without having had found an adequately impactful solution.

Before diving into the societal failings that have contributed to some Canadian’s inaccessibility to food it is important to understand what food insecurity is. The definition can be looked in two parts, beginning with the concept of food security which is which is assured access at all times to sufficient food according to Graham Riches, professor emeritus and former director of the School of Social Work from the University of British Columbia. “Food security is two sort of major themes running through it in a way. One is food production, creating enough food for everyone to eat. And secondly, there's a significant issue of access to food. How do we access food?” Says Riches, “it is a matter of access or the lack of access due to financial constraint.” Food insecurity has long since been looked at as a matter of inaccessibility to food through food shortages. In 1981 Canada’s food bank was opened in Edmonton Alberta. Its inception was meant to address food access shortcoming within the community. They were developed from the original American Model which began in 1967 in Phoenix Arizona. It was meant to be a short-term solution during the economic recession. Foodbanks quickly spread all throughout the country and in 1987 the Canadian Association of Food Banks was created. Over 40 years later and food banks remain one of the main resources employed by the country to combat the issue of food insecurity. Food Banks Canada now supports over 4750 food banks across the country. And the issue is not subsiding.

The problem regarding overreliance on food banks by the Canadian government is compounded by the necessity the service has become to the individuals who access their services. “It's a really difficult situation because food banks operate as a result of failure of government policy. We are filling a gap in the system that we will never be able to solve. But at the same time, we can't retract our services because so many people rely on them. And so it's sort of a bit of a catch 22 because by existing by providing that food, we sort of take the pressure off of government because people, when they have food in their belly, they are less likely to be, you know, storming Queen's Park,” says Talia Bronstein, VP of Research and Advocacy at Daily Bread Food Bank, “at the same time, we could never ethically stop providing that service because when you speak to the clients that we serve, we asked, what would you do if this food bank didn't exist? And people said, really, really distressing things. They said I wouldn't be able to survive or I would have to move to a city that has a food bank because I rely on it so much.” Foodbank usage has also skyrocketed. In the Daily Bread Food Bank’s Hunger Report they saw an increase of 16% in food bank visits in Toronto, up from 1.45 million in 2020 to 1.68 million in 2021. This trend can be seen all across the country. Second Harvest, a food redistribution service, reported an expected 60% increase in food bank usage across Canada in 2023. To further put the issue in perspective over 16% of Canadians are experiencing food insecurity, amounting to about 6 million people. Although this figure is likely an underrepresentation because data for institutionalized individuals and indigenous individuals living on reserves isn't collected. The issue affects individuals and families across all demographics but it is particularly prominent in racialized communities, immigrants, international students, single parents and single mothers especially because they are at a higher risk of experiencing poverty, according to  Elaine Power, Queens University professor and public health & food studies researcher.  

The issue with food banks is that they can only provide a temporary solution to a lasting problem. Regarding food insecurity, the driving factor isn't a lack of food, it is a matter of individuals being barred access to food because of financial restrictions, or simply put…poverty. “It's like people are already in a bad situation and we have to help them. Well, okay, fair enough. But the upstream metaphor as well, why don't we check out what's going on upstream to see why all these people are landing in the river? Like, is there a bridge that needs to be repaired? What's the problem upstream?” says Power. Campaigns that focus on increasing food bank donations are ultimately ineffective at fixing the issue as a whole. Especially when overall food donations dwindled due to the current cost of living. “The government could be doing something much more effective by addressing poverty, by putting an income floor under people, by raising the minimum wage, by ensuring that families living in poverty have higher child tax benefits.” says Power. The research of social assistance having a positive impact on food insecurity is well documented. It doesn't solve the issue completely but it goes a way in mitigating the issue. The University of Toronto’s PROOF research on food insecurity found that the risk of food insecurity for low-income, unattached adults is cut in half once they become eligible for these programs at age 65. “When you increase people's incomes, food insecurity declines. So, for example, with the Canada child benefit, once people started receiving that, the amount of food insecurity shifted from for those individuals or families from being more severe to more moderate or more moderate to more mild,” says Bronstein.

Food insecurity carries with it a myriad of health issues beyond simple malnourishment. The stress of living in poverty is difficult for individuals. The constant need to make a decision on what to allocate finances to is incredibly stressful. When the choice is either food or rent, or paying a phone bill often times food is the need that is cut. The mental health consequences of depression and anxiety can be severe. “The rates of mental illness, particularly depression and anxiety, are 3 to 5 times higher than most secure population. Almost every not every disease, but almost every disease is higher, whether that's cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, even things like musculoskeletal disorders, like back pain, they're all worse in people associated with with food insecurity,” says Power. The challenge of food insecurity often becomes even more complicated with families, adults will often choose to forgo meals so their kids can eat, but the added stress of poverty can also have an effect on the children as well and ultimately is detrimental to their development. Pregnant individuals can also be severely affected by food insecurity. “There's pretty profound health impacts starting actually in utero. If a mother is food insecure, that impacts the fetus. So things like preterm delivery, we know that there's higher rates for children of things like asthma and learning disabilities, you know, behavioral issues. There's higher risk of anemia, which again, can affect your brain development as a child,” adds Power. Food insecure individuals can find themselves at greater risk of premature death than food secure individuals. The issue also lends itself to profound health costs for food insecure individuals. Statistics Canada has documented that food secure individuals average about $1600 in annual healthcare costs. Food insecure individuals are over double that figure around $3900 in annual healthcare costs. 

The issue of food insecurity is a frustrating one. In a developed country like Canada where the social services and welfare mechanisms are in place the reason why the reliance falls on the shoulders of foodbanks is puzzling. The problem will remain persistent if the onus remains on Canadians to donate to institutions who provide food. The issue is not an inadequate supply of food. “These weren't sort of agitators sitting on the outside saying, you know, you should do this, you should do that. These were actually the people who were working in the food banks, too, were saying, you know, this is not the right approach to take,” says Riches. Greater social change must be invoked to create a lasting solution. Ensuring that food insecure individuals have money in their pocket will go much further than forcing them to rely on the services of their community food banks. “We always are asking people to write to their elected representatives, to call them to say, you know, this is unacceptable, that anyone in my community is having to go to a foodbank. We need to be investing those resources to support people upfront so that they can afford the food that they need,” says Bronstein. The inaction of the Canadian government to address the issue of food insecurity is nothing short of egregious. In a developed country it should be unacceptable that 1 in 5 individuals have experienced food insecurity. We should not still be relying on food banks, a temporary solution which finds itself on the forefront of the fight against food insecurity over 40 years later.