Organizations urge for more government action to address food security issues

When the pandemic hit, a non-profit organization in Thunder Bay, Ont., which usually focuses on urban-agriculture and community programming, shifted the way they ran things to better address widening gaps within the community.

Starting in March, team members at Roots to Harvest recognized an increased need across the city as issues around food security and food access snowballed once food banks began to shutter temporarily due to the pandemic, and as breakfast and snack programs were halted due to school closures.

"We found out from our partners at the Dew Drop Inn that the seniors were maybe falling through the cracks, that because they were concerned about moving around the community as COVID spread, that they weren't having as much access to fresh food and to enough food," explained Kim McGibbon, kitchen and food director at Roots to Harvest.

On top of family food bags, Roots to Harvest developed a weekly food hamper that served seniors through a partnership with the Dew Drop Inn, and additional food hampers in partnership organizations like Elizabeth Fry Society and the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre.

Through these partnerships, the organization continues to focus on making their food hampers as barrier-free as possible and has informed their process with feedback from surveyed recipients.

Roots to Harvest surveyed all families who received family food bags through their program, which lasted for about 19 weeks and distributed around 400 food bags per week.

Erin Beagle, Roots to Harvest executive director, said the feedback revealed that 55 per cent of participants identified as having increased food insecurity needs during the pandemic, and 15 per cent identified as never having to use food access before the pandemic.

"When we get feedback from some of the food access things, we've done over COVID, people are asking for fresh vegetables, they're asking for dairy products, they're asking for meat products … some of these ones that are higher cost, they spoil quicker … there's a real appreciation for those products," said Beagle.

Beagle said not only did the feedback inform what was going into the food hampers, but the survey responses also revealed inequities of food access within the city.

"We did ask how they identify and 47 per cent of them indicated as identifying as Indigenous, which is a really high number, which shows an inequity of food access," she said.

Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) released a new report earlier this year which illustrates food insecurity as being directly linked to equity and income.

The report, Beyond Hunger, outlines four key policy changes the organization is asking the federal government to commit to, which includes investing in income support for low-income Canadians and ensuring progress on food insecurity is achieved equitably.

"We urgently need a national solution that goes beyond emergency food assistance. We need a solution founded in solid policy that addresses inadequate social programs, systemic racism and precarious employment," said Nick Saul, CEO of Community Food Centres Canada in a news release.

Food Hampers a Band-Aid solution

While food hampers are meant to provide an emergency service for people facing food insecurity, Beagle and McGibbon said sometimes the items inside a hamper, or the way they are distributed, are not always helpful for the people receiving them.

"It becomes a little harder if you have allergies or different cultural ways of eating, you know, so pork and beans becomes not super helpful. And pasta is not comfort food for a lot of the newer cultures that are coming and living in Canada and Thunder Bay, who are relying on these systems and we've seen that first hand over the pandemic here at Roots to Harvest, but it's across Canada," said Beagle.

Apart from the barriers sometimes faced in the short-term by what's inside the hamper, a lack of long-term impact on the issue of food insecurity is what's becoming increasingly concerning for organizations like Roots to Harvest.

Just last week, the Ontario Dietitians in Public Health (ODPH) updated its position statement on responses to food insecurity, calling the issue an urgent public health problem and "serious human rights and social justice issue for local, provincial, and federal policy agendas."

"Food banks and other food-based programs are ineffective responses to food insecurity because they do not address the primary cause: inadequate income. They have been counterproductive because they contribute to enabling governments to abandon their responsibility to ensure income adequacy," reads the statement from Dec. 2.

Beagle echoes the ODPH and said the holiday season is an appropriate time for the general public to think more critically about food access programs and the systems that are supposed to provide aid to those who are food insecure.

"I think the other part is we have now been conditioned since the 80s, that this is what we do this time of year … and not to be critical of people for wanting to be charitable, I think that's, you know, really generous. But we have seen it not solve the problem. This has increased. Food insecurity has increased," she said.

Beagle said true change to address food access inequities and food insecurity can't be found at the kitchen cupboard level or by donating food items, but rather by urging officials at all levels of government to do something more.

"Give your pasta sauce and also call your MP … you need to do something more. That's also our jobs as agencies. Roots to Harvest should be doing that, RFDA should be doing that, the food banks. If we want to get rid of poverty, it's at that level, it's not at the kitchen cupboard level," said Beagle.