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Organization: PROOF
Publication Date: 2017
This report identifies effective policy interventions to address household food insecurity.
Publication Date: 2013
Drawing on data from a large cross-sectional population health survey, we examine the relationship between adults' chronic disease status and the prevalence and severity of household food insecurity in Canada. We build on prior analyses of food insecurity/health relationships by designing our analyses to predict household food insecurity from health (rather than vice versa), considering multiple physician-diagnosed conditions (rather than a singl...
Organization: Thunder Bay: Northern Policy Institute
Publication Date: 2017
In this paper, I review what is known about food insecurity in Ontario, considering the socio-demographic patterning of this problem and its relation to household income. I then examine the evidence suggesting that a basic income guarantee (B.I.G.) would be an effective policy intervention to reduce household food insecurity among those most vulnerable to this problem.
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...
Organization: Canadian Journal of Public Health
Publication Date: 2013
OBJECTIVE: Growing recognition of the problem of household food insecurity in Canada has meant public health practitioners are looking for effective ways to ameliorate this problem in their communities. Community gardens, community kitchens, and food box programs can offer nutritious foods for comparably lower costs, however, the uptake and perceptions of these programs in populations at risk of food insecurity have not been evaluated. Building o...
Organization: Canadian Public Policy Journal, 38(4), December 2012, pages 497-514.
Publication Date: 2012
Abstract: In the absence of targeted public policy to address household food insecurity in Canada, food banks remain the dominant response, despite questions about their effectiveness. Interviews with 371 low-income Toronto families revealed that 75 percent had experienced some food insecurity, but only 23 percent had used a food bank; for most food bank users, food insecurity was a severe and chronic problem. Food-insecure families' reasons for...
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...
Organization: Proof: Research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity
Publication Date: 2013
In PEI, where 1 in 4 children lived in families affected by food insecurity in 2011 (only Nunavut’s rate was higher than this), the PEI Coalition for a Poverty Eradication Strategy, the MacKillop Centre for Social Justice and Poverty Bites recently held a public meeting in Charlottetown to talk about what could be done about this serious problem. Valerie Tarasuk, PROOF Principal Investigator, presented an analysis of food insecurity in PEI to a l...
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...