Food Insecurity

School lunches are often unsung heroes of many modern American households. Frequently overlooked and disregarded because of their stigma, school lunches are a key ingredient that may help make the world a better place. Unknowingly, great numbers of individuals in our communities deal with food insecurities every day of their lives. It baffles me that in an advanced society many people do not have the resources to provide food for themselves or their families. Until it affected me personally, I was unaware nor passionate about the struggles of food insecurity. My passion for solving food insecurity in my local community has led me to gain both experience and leadership through understanding and advocating for those around me.

After reading the extensive “The New Face of Hunger” (Tracie McMillan), my eyes became more open to the overall issue of hunger, faced by many people today. In a few words, I was absolutely shocked by the true meaning and examples provided of what exactly food insecurity is. Honestly speaking, when I hear the word “hunger” I think of a human who has no food, living on the streets. “The New Face of hunger” brought to my attention that food insecurity is much more than simply having no food. In fact, “In 2006 the U.S. government replaced “hunger” with the term “food insecure” to describe any household where, sometime during the previous year, people didn’t have enough food to eat” (The New Face of Hunger). Not only was I able to see the harsh

According to WHO, food security is defined as existing 'when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life' (WHO, 2015). Low income jobs and unemployment leads to food insecurity. On a larger Canadian scale, a study was done in 2006 to observe if households earning minimum wage in Nova Scotia can afford a nutrient rich diet. They found that people earning minimum wage do not meet basic needs, i.e. a nutrient rich diet. Wage increases and supplements, along with supports for expenses such as childcare and transportation were indicated to address the issue of meeting the basic needs (Williams, 2006) In order to combat food insecurity in Toronto, policy action needs to be started to preserve the land's ability to produce food. Another way to combat food desserts and food insecurity is to welcome the idea of globalization. Globalization, as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, is the act of globalizing; the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets (Merriam-Webster, 2015) welcomes the opportunities for new and often times higher paying jobs, as well as the transport of goods and technology across the countries. However, there are setbacks when it comes to globalization. Smaller, less

Acquiring life’s necessities for many Canadians is as simple as going to the grocery store. For most Northern Aboriginal Canadian communities, who face overwhelmingly high food prices this is not the case. The inability to engage in healthy eating practices for both financial and availability reasons is hypothesized to have contributed to the higher incidence of diet related diseases among this demographic. With food insecurity on the rise, policy reform is essential. Reform must consider both traditional and market foods, as well as minimize all current barriers to food attainment. Urgency is required for a sustainable solution to this problem.

According to the United Nations, food security is defined as “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (“Rome Declaration,” 1996). Canada has adopted this definition, although they monitor food insecurity per each household and analyze financial barriers causing the situation. Research has shown that 62.2% of households

These are few of the many issues of poverty we face today in our communities; food banks are crisis because of the high in demand of people in need. Housing is another important factor as millions of people worry about being able to make rent payments, and finding affordable living places where they do not have to worry about living paycheck to paycheck. A study was conducted from t McMaster University in 2010 for the City

They do not have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. This lack of food is troublesome because it is used to meet dietary needs and food preferences to live an active and healthy lifestyle. It is hard to comprehend why people are hungry in Canada if they have the largest coastline in the world where they can bring in trade commodities. Unfortunately, having food in the country is not the problem that causes hunger for its citizens.

There is an ongoing struggle to ensure that First Nations in northern Ontario have food security. Food security exists when people have consistent physical and economical access to sufficient, safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food that meets their dietary needs for a healthy life (Socha et al., 1). Members of the First Nations Community in the north indicate that their children are eating unhealthy food like chips and pop because they cannot afford the basic healthy necessities (Stefanovich, 1). According to the Chiefs of Ontario and the First Nations Information Governance Centre, 48% of First Nations adults living on-reserve experience severe or moderate food insecurity (Chiefs of Ontario, 46). Food insecurity leads to generally

Food insecurity causes health issues such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and early mortality among young single mothers. According to author Christine A. Stevens young single mothers are affected by food insecurity in two ways “first, the stress of food insecurity can lead to compounding issues of depression for this mother, second, food choice.” Factors that assist these problems are socioeconomic status and the ability to obtain adequate nutrition. These young single mothers do not have enough money to give nutritional food to their families. With limited money they do not have a choice for nutritional food and according to Stevens are forced to buy “inexpensive, high fat, high carbohydrates food” (Stevens 163). In

Food security has three core components. These are food availability, accessibility and use of food (FAO, 2015, Welsh, 1998). 12.5% of household in Canada are suffering from food insecurity (Boddy and Roblin, 2017). Food insecurity is higher in immigrants compare to the Canadians (Health Canada, 2012, Welsh, 1998, Toronto Food Policy Council, 2013). Moreover, the food desert is another factor of food security where there is a lack of access to the food stores, fruit, and vegetables (Center for Disease control, 2012). Ethnic vegetables play an important role in the food security and nutrition of the South Asian immigrants (Quadir and Danesh,

Most of the rural communities in Saskatchewan are malnourished economically and population wise while the cities are becoming more robust in these two aspects. It is therefore important to find a way to resuscitate the rural areas with the right nutrients. One of the ways to achieve this is by creating off-farm employments for rural settlers. It was noted in 2011 that 30% of the farm operators who are below the age of 35 are involved in off farm work for more than 40hours a week (Statistics Canada, 2012).

This is not due to the lack of food, but due to the lack of culturally appropriate food. Khan, 2012 examines the existing policies and initiatives to address food insecurity in the Waterloo region using physical and economic access to the food, religious and cultural adequacy of the food and food system environmental and social effect. Applied to the criteria to the south Asian Muslim communities in the Waterloo region in a case study analysis the author finds that the current food system is largely industrial and containing major gaps in fulfilling the criteria to access food, sustainability, social justice, cultural and spiritual attitudes. They find that the food system partially meets the criteria or even fail to meet the criteria in case of South Asian population. He found that, the current governance arrangement to address the issue of food insecurity result in the exclusion of the immigrant population and a multicultural policy to address the immigrant food insecurity issues (Khan,

Food security is historically defined as the overall regional, national as well as global food supply and shortfalls in supply as associated to requirements (Foster, 1992). The same author contended that, even though, the increased observation of differences in the sufficiency of food intake by certain groups despite overall adequacy of supply, the term has been applied recently at a local, household, or individual level and it has been widened beyond notions of food supply to include elements of access (Sen, 1981), vulnerability (Watts and Bohle, 1993), and sustainability (Chambers, 1989). Different organizations, scholars and institutions define food security differently. However, basic concept remains the same.

A great challenge confronting Canadian policy makers is the increase incidence of poverty and the interaction it plays on health. Research has concluded that poverty affects both physical and mental health (Ivanova, 2011). Policy makers are starting to realize that they need to start putting more effort to improve the health of Canadians. In order to improve health there has to be policies and programs to reduce the number of people living in poverty (Williamson &Reutter 1999). Poverty can be the a result of any slight change in people lives, such as divorce, addition to the family, death of a family and economic hardship (Ivanova, 2011).. The effect of poverty and health has been known since the 19th century; however, this issue has been heighted due to the publication of a report in the United Kingdom that illustrated that people who are receiving very little income suffered a wide range of diseases (Raphael, 2011). There have been various studies that link poverty and various health related issues. Obesity, asthma, low birth weight and various psychological problems in children can be attributed to poverty (Raphael, 2011). This paper will look at the interaction between poverty and health, and it will analyse Canada poverty strategies and looks at recommendation to help eradicate poverty

Imagine not having a home, a place to sleep comfortably, or a place where you feel safe. Approximately nine percent of Canadians are living in poverty. As Investopedia defined “poverty”, it does not particularly mean they are all