I am a student at Queens University, taking a course on the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). After conducting my own research, paired with what I have learned in the course, I want to broach the matter of food insecurity that Canadians face as a result of poverty.

Food is one of the basic human rights referenced in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, it states that “The right to food is the right of every individual, alone or in community with others, to have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable food produced and consumed sustainably, preserving access to food for future generations.” Over 50 years later, however, and hunger remains a prevalent issue throughout many first world countries, including …show more content…
diabetics, consequently, leading to increased use of clinical services. Apart from being an important SDOH, the revelation by Food Banks Canada, that each month over 850,000 people turn to food banks for help and more than one-third are children and youth deeply saddened me. Apparently, these numbers do not include the homeless and the First Nations people living on reservations. But what is even more alarming is that these numbers are five years out of date. Assuming that these numbers are correct, it is still a shocking and unacceptable number of Canadians that are food insecure. Individuals from diverse backgrounds utilise the food banks; the majority still go hungry, because there is a limitation on quantity received at given intervals. On the other hand other working poor, like myself who are hungry refrain from assessing food banks, this is primarily because of their pride and stigma associated with it. This matter is of fundamental concern to me because, on many occasions I have had to choose between putting petrol in my car and buying