Food insecurity is everywhere. According to Statistics Canada, one in seven Canadians suffers some form of food insecurity today.
In large cities, small towns, and across our rural landscape, amid a federal election and with provincial and municipal elections on the horizon, people are asking what the defining issues should be.
From my perspective, hunger should be one of those issues. Food insecurity should get more than just rhetoric when politicians are looking for votes. I started writing this post to make a list of ten things that I thought would eliminate food insecurity; ten wasn’t enough and I have more than likely missed some points along the way.
Build more geared-to-income housing.
A lot more. The current wait time is more than five years, which is almost criminal. What Canadians need are apartments, semi-detached, and detached homes – not “tiny” homes – real homes. Relying on the private sector to build geared-to-income housing is a non-starter; few private developers would want to build geared-to-income housing when they can build expensive and far more profitable housing on the same land. Even the term “affordable housing” is subject to so much interpretation that it becomes almost meaningless for low to mid-income people. The standard set by the CMHC is that 30-40% of a household’s income should be spent on housing; this is what geared-to-income means.
The housing needed must be well built and incorporated into existing neighbours to avoid stigma. It also needs access to amenities and parkland.
Guaranteed Personal Income.
Food insecurity is a direct result of poverty. Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Pension do not allow a person to live with dignity, much less to cover their basic expenses. The recent CERB program was $2,000 per month, which was close to an amount that would allow people to live, not simply survive.
There have been quite a few complaints from some service-based companies that CERB was to blame for the lack of workers available to fill low-paying jobs.
Ironically, they avoided the fact that many people cannot pay rent and buy food on the wages many service-based companies pay. The poor availability of childcare on evenings and weekends and the lack of full-time hours do not make these jobs sustainable. Guaranteed Personal Income allows workers to seek better employment – when working menial jobs is no longer a last resort, and employers must raise workplace standards to attract employees, everyone benefits.
Living Wage with incentives for companies.
A living wage will vary from region to region. It is based on what a single person or average family needs to earn to adequately cover housing expenses, food, and normal purchases. In Grey-Bruce, the living wage was calculated to be $18.39 in 2019. The minimum wage currently stands at $14.25, which is woefully inadequate to reach this standard.
To add incentive, employers who pay a living wage and provide full-time positions could earn tax credits as well as be publicly recognized for their efforts in the same way that “fair trade” items are recognized now.
Childcare.
One of the greatest expenses for most young families is finding childcare for their children. Even if affordable daycare can be found, many parents work in service-based occupations; finding childcare for evenings and weekends is almost impossible. This needs to be addressed to allow more parents the option to work, as well as to alleviate stress on parents and children alike.
Revised intake processes.
Food organizations, particularly rural ones, need to move from a model that is geared towards discouraging applicants to one that is built around ensuring that applicants are aware of and encouraged to get help.
Helping clients file income taxes should be a priority as many government assistance programs are based on tax credits. There is still a knowledge gap for many vulnerable people and they may not realize how these processes work. Hosting free workshops and making information readily available in print and online are good first steps in closing this gap.
More accessible hours and removal of the “once per month” rule.
Few people realize that many rural food banks limit the amount of food distributed to three or four days worth once per month. People should be able to access food when they are hungry … period.
More community meal programs.
In many small rural towns and cities, meal programs are important. These programs thrive with well-established food rescue connections to local grocery stores, businesses, and local farmers.
Build more community gardens.
Not only can community gardens provide much-needed nutritionally dense foods to food banks and meal programs, they are also a great way to forge community connections. Young volunteers, old volunteers, new Canadians, Indigenous peoples, and everyone in between can learn and cooperate as contributors to these gardens. Community gardens exist; we just need more of them.
Community Food Security Councils.
Food insecurity in rural communities is largely a patchwork of various agencies and volunteers; we need something more than just an ad-hoc relationship. To build connections and connectivity between food banks, meal programs, community gardens, local farmers, local gardeners, and the various support agencies who help disadvantaged people, something more formal is required. Rural Food Councils, non-secular groups with members drawn from across the community and guided by a provincial or federal mandate and regular multi-year funding are the answer. These groups would exist to eliminate the need for themselves, not perpetuate their need in the long term.
Demystify harm reduction.
Every community with a food insecurity issue needs to have a Harm Reduction component. Substance abuse occurs across every socio-economic stratum and is an important component when assisting vulnerable people. The decriminalization and regulation of illegal drugs, the use of prescriptions to safely treat addictions, and safe, supervised injection sites are all steps in the right direction. Addiction is a real problem in rural Ontario and it cannot be solved through stricter law enforcement.
Understand that “pulling people up by their bootstraps” is a myth.
People of a certain vintage and philosophy often hold the mistaken belief that “a job” or “people just working harder” will solve all of the issues in society, including food insecurity. We need to make people aware that not everyone can do that and some people will need help; no amount of self-determination can change that.
Acknowledge the challenges of multi-generational poverty.
We have allowed generations of people to exist in poverty in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. As a society, we need to enhance support programs to provide dignity and opportunities for people to escape from this trap and to correct the systematic processes that allowed this to happen.
End human trafficking (slavery).
As a society, this is, like harm reduction, a situation that we must acknowledge and act upon. We need to expose “trap houses,” pimps, and all those who prey on vulnerable people. Anyone who thinks slavery is a thing of the past is delusional and woefully ignorant of the reality that some people live with daily in our province and country.
I am a trained economist and businessperson with more than thirty years of experience in the private sector; I appreciate these costs more than most. However, as a society providing support for vulnerable and insecure people these points are some of the basic tenets of what we should be doing. If we set an example then the world will listen to Canada as a fair and just voice; a country made up of compassionate people.
Paul