Sociology 808

Food Security in Canada

Student name: Dorian Alushi

Student ID: 500549410

Ryerson University

November 13, 2015
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, “food security exists when all the people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. The focus of this essay is to analyze the factors that cause food insecurity and the health issues related with food insufficiency. There will be some data showing what percentage of total income would healthy and nutritional food take in a normal Canadian family. Also, I will provide information and facts that suggest that food banks are not a good solution for the problem, since they cause other health issues. Another interesting issue I will be discussing about is the food security in Nunavut, a remote location where food is an everyday issue for most of the community.
Food security is a big problem all over the world, including social countries like Canada that have different programs to help people who cannot access or afford healthy and nutritious food. Food insecurity arises amongst different classes of the society, which vary from middle class to poor and then the biggest sufferers, the homeless. This problem comes from the high prices of fresh and healthy foods. A family with a low income has a lot of expenses, so they can’t spend a lot of money on food. Usually, fresh food is very expensive in poor neighborhoods, so people are better off by purchasing cheap food to fill them up. Even though they are not hungry, they are still considered food insecure, because according to safe and nutritious food part of the FAO, the food has to be safe and nutritious. According to Kirbyson 2007, a family in British Colombia has to spend 42% of their monthly income only to provide the basic needs, not considering expensive preferences. This means that almost half of their money has to go towards providing food, rather than other expenses like education or mortgages. It is not as bad in other parts of Canada, where an average family spends 16% of their income on healthy food.
As I mentioned before, one of the biggest problems is amongst the homeless, or people who have been homeless for some time in their lives. According to a report by Hamel & Hamelin 2008, a group of adults who frequent shelters, soup kitchens and drop-in centers for homeless people were asked some questions about food security. They were asked about how many times they would eat in a day, about food sufficiency etc. The results were shocking because almost 40% reported food insufficiency and they felt they were suffering from poor health. The issue with this is very broad, because these people who are food insecure have many health problems that might be physical or psychological. Mental health is very closely related to food insufficiency, because a lot of people who are food insecure suffer from depression. This causes other problems like drug and alcohol abuse.
Also as the report states food insufficient individuals suffer from many chronic diseases, such as anemia, diabetes, allergies and heart disease, with the latter one being among the most popular diseases caused by malnutrition.
These diseases are closely connected to food insecurity, because homeless people or those who cannot afford fresh food have to eat a lot of junk food, which is rich in fat and sugar. Food banks are considered as a possible solution for food insecurity, but in fact it only a solution of hunger. The food that is served in food banks may not be as bad as junk food, but it still not safe or nutritious to provide an active and healthy life. In a 2008 journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, a research was published that exposed the nutritional values of the food served in shelters and food banks. The results were disturbing; the amount of fiber was lower than recommended, the total daily fat was twice than the recommended amount and also saturated fat was more than it should be. The high amount of fat is one of the main causes of heart disease, and it also causes obesity.
In my opinion this is a big issue that the government has to fix, because people are going to shelters and food banks to eat healthy and nutritious food, otherwise they would go to cheap fast food restaurants and get tasty meals like burgers and fries.
The last topic is the food security in Nunavut, Canada. The Inuit people living in this region had been surviving by hunting and preparing their own food, rather than consuming processed foods. Nowadays, the situation has changed because they have started relying on market food.
According to a research by Fediuk & Hamilton 2006, 49% of the households in Nunavut said that “often” they didn’t have enough food to eat, compared to Canadian average of 7%. There were a lot of reasons for this, with the most obvious one being the remote location where it is hard to get food. The “fresh” food is usually very expensive and not very fresh considering the long time it takes to be transported. Also, the traditional food requires men to hunt, which means that they have to have a gun, ammo, machines, boats, cars etc. This can be very expensive, so not everyone can afford it. The people who had the most problems in securing food were divorced women, widows and families with low incomes. The good thing about this society is that it is based on sharing. Sometimes, the hunters provide food for people who can’t afford it for free or for something else in return such as gasoline.
Even though this place is very different from the other parts of Canada, the problems with food security are similar. Families with low incomes will spend their income in cheap foods to fill them up like sodas and foods that have lots of fat rather than fresh food because it is very expensive.
In conclusion, the problems concerning food security in Canada are similar all over the country. In general, fresh and healthy food is very expensive, so people with low income will spend their money in cheap food, which is not very nutritious to fill them up. The consequences of this are families with low food security and health problems like diabetes, obesity and heart diseases. Even in places where hunting is the traditional way of supplying food, unhealthy market foods have become the main source of bad calories. The government has to take action regarding these issues, which might be better nutritional foods in shelters and cheaper fresh food for families across the country.

Word Count: 1,111

Reference: * Davis, L. R., Holleman, W. L., Weller, N. F., & Jadhav, M. (2008). Dietary intake of homeless women residing at a transitional living center. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 19(3), 952-962. doi:10.1353/hpu.0.0056 * Kirbyson, A. M. (2007). Recipes for success: A celebration of food security work in canada Fernwood Publishing. * Chan, H. M., Fediuk, K., Hamilton, S., Rostas, L., Caughey, A., Kuhnlein, H.. . Loring, E. (2006). Food security in nunavut, canada: Barriers and recommendations. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 65(5), 416. * Hamelin, A., & Hamel, D. (2009). Food insufficiency in currently or formerly homeless persons is associated with poorer health.Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 18(2), 1.