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Organization: PROOF
Publication Date: 2016
This report identifies effective policy interventions to address household food insecurity.
Publisher: PROOF Food Insecurity Policy Research
Publication Date: 2016
The report has been prepared by PROOF, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)-funded research program initiated to identify effective policy interventions to address household food insecurity. It is the fourth in a series of annual reports on food insecurity in Canada.
Publication Date: 2016
While there has recently been considerable research and public investment in strategies to address homelessness in Canada, food charity remains the primary response to hunger, with little evaluation of current efforts and no initiatives to develop more effective approaches. Using data from a 2010–2011 survey of charitable food assistance in five Canadian cities, this study was undertaken to describe charitable meal provisioning in each city and t...
Organization: PROOF
Publication Date: 2016
Household food insecurity, inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraints, is a significant social and health problem in Canada. Not all provinces and territories chose to measure food insecurity in 2014 but among those that did, the problem appears to have remained persistently high. When the results for the participating jurisdictions - Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Isl...
Organization: PROOF
Publication Date: 2015
Household food insecurity, inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraints, is a significant social and health problem in Canada. Not all provinces and territories chose to measure food insecurity in 2013 but among those that did, the problem appears to have remained persistently high. When the results for the participating jurisdictions - Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Isl...
Organization: BMC Public Health
Publication Date: 2014
Background
Food banks have emerged in response to growing food insecurity among low-income groups in many affluent nations, but their ability to manage this problem is questionable. In Canada, in the absence of public programs and policy interventions, food banks are the only source of immediate assistance for households struggling to meet food needs, but there are many indications that this response is insufficient. The purpose of this study was...
Publication Date: 2009
Objective: To explain the low nutrient intakes of homeless youth in Toronto by looking at their usual food intake patterns and the food they obtained from charitable programs and their own purchases.
Methods: Interviews were conducted with 261 homeless youth (149 male, 112 female), recruited from outdoor locations and drop-in centres in downtown Toronto. Drawing on data from two 24-hour dietary intake recalls, youths’ usual food intakes were esti...
Organization: PROOF
Publication Date: 2014
Household food insecurity, inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraints, is a significant social and health problem in Canada. In 2012, 4 million individuals in Canada, including 1.15 million children, experienced some level of food insecurity. This represents nearly 13% of Canadian households.
Food insecurity has only been measured on a consistent basis since 2005, and not all provinces have participated in the monitor...
Publication Date: 2002
This study explored the food experiences of street youth, one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population in Canada. To gain an in-depth understanding of food insecurity within the context of daily life, ethnographic research was undertaken with street youth at one inner-city drop-in center in Toronto, Ontario. Results of this study reveal that street youth's access to food was precarious amidst the instability & chaos of stree...
Publication Date: 2005
This study was undertaken to characterize nutritional vulnerability among a sample of homeless youth in downtown Toronto. Interviews were conducted with 261 homeless youth (149 male, 112 female), recruited from drop-in centers and outdoor locations. Information about current living circumstances, nutrition and health-related behaviors, and 24-h dietary intake recalls were collected, and height, weight, triceps skinfold thickness, and mid-upper ar...
Publication Date: 2006
Although the magnitude of homelessness in Canada remains poorly documented, there is broad consensus that the problem has grown in size and complexity in recent years. According to the Toronto Report Card on Housing and Homelessness 2003 (City of Toronto, 2003), about 32, 000 individuals - an increase of 21% since 1990 - stayed in emergency shelters across the city in 2002. When all those who sleep in indoor or outdoor public places or stay tempo...
Organization: PROOF
Publication Date: 2013
Household food insecurity, inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraints, is a significant social and public health problem in Canada. In 2011, 1.6 million Canadian households, or slightly more than 12%, experienced some level of food insecurity. This amounts to nearly one in eight households, and 3.9 million individuals in Canada, including 1.1 million children. There were 450,000 more Canadians living in households affe...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory On Homelessness
Publication Date: 2013
This chapter begins with an examination of the nutritional vulnerability of homeless youth and the many strategies they employ in their efforts to satisfy basic food needs. We also explore the meaning of food for youth who are homeless and unable to choose food they prefer. This section of our chapter draws heavily from dietary intake assessments (analyses of the level of nutrition in a diet), survey interviews, and in-depth qualitative interview...
Publication Date: 2009
Over the past two decades, Canada has witnessed a proliferation of community-based initiatives providing charitable meals to homeless and under-housed individuals. The existing research has raised concerns about the ability of such initiatives to meet users' nutrient needs. As part of a study of Toronto meal programs, open-ended interviews with program coordinators and observations of 16 meal programs were conducted to provide insight into the nu...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2010
The study examines the relationship between chronic food deprivation and food acquisition practices among homeless youth in Toronto. The authors found that the ways in which homeless youths endeavoured to manage their food needs reflect a “hand-to-mouth” existence, characterized by the use of a wide diversity of strategies to obtain small amounts of food for immediate consumption. Many of these strategies were stigmatizing and unsafe; some were...
Publication Date: 2009
Objective: To describe homeless youths’ experiences of food insecurity and examine the relation between chronic food deprivation and food acquisition practices.
Design: A cross-sectional survey of homeless youths was conducted in 2003 to assess their nutritional vulnerability and describe their food acquisition practices.
Setting: Toronto, Canada.
Subjects: Two hundred and sixty-one youths, aged 16–24 years, who had spent ten or more of the pa...