What We Get Wrong When We Think About Food Insecurity
i
am an incredibly
lucky person
i grew up in a stable home
i didn’t have to worry about whether or
not there would be food in the fridge
or if my parents would be able to pay
the bills
i grew up isolated from food insecurity
but i thought i understood what it was
like many of us then my first
understandings of food insecurity came
from interacting with food charities and
food banks
my parents would bundle my siblings and
i into the car
and we would go downtown to pack boxes
at the food bank or serve meals at the
soup kitchen
i remember looking around those spaces
and recognizing that
a lot of the folks who were accessing
these services looked like me
and my siblings most were not white
at school and at church we would run
food drives during the holidays and we
were told
that this was how to ensure that folks
who didn’t have enough food
got enough to eat when it came to the
issue of food insecurity
the solution was more food banks and
more food drives and more soup kitchens
but this message is wrong
although these services do provide
important supports
to families who need emergency food
they do not solve the long-term problem
of food insecurity
since then i have learned that the
issue the roots of food insecurity are
buried much
deeper and that we can’t talk about food
insecurity in canada
without also talking about poverty and
racism
food insecurity is defined as inadequate
or insufficient access to food
due to financial constraints
the thing that you need to remember
about this definition is
that the root of food insecurity is a
lack
of access to money
for folks who are food insecure this can
mean having to make some incredibly
difficult choices like choosing between
the
food medicine or household goods that
they need for themselves and their
families
and paying rent at the end of the month
this also means that if we can find a
solution to food insecurity
that puts enough money in people’s
pockets
alongside a robust universally
accessible network of social programs
we’ll be well on our way to finding a
solution to food insecurity
and a whole host of other social
problems
racism also impacts food insecurity in
canada
food insecurity exists for the same
reasons that
poverty exists and poverty does not
impact everyone equally they both
trace their roots to systems of
oppression that work
together to determine who experiences
the most food insecurity
and who gets to be at the table in
conversations about the solutions to
food insecurity
examining this problem and its solutions
is part of what’s called food justice
work and this is work that i’m involved
in
alongside an organization called
foodshare toronto
it is difficult work that requires that
we go a lot further in addressing food
insecurity
than opening up a few more food banks
it is work that seeks justice and food
security
for everyone fuchsia toronto
runs community-led food access
programming
across the city of toronto these
programs are designed
to be universal so that anyone who needs
to can access
but we also recognize that certain
communities
like the black and indigenous community
for example face greater
barriers than others for example
in our good food program which sells
affordable fruits and vegetables
across the city we have always noticed
that there were
a greater number of non-white folks
accessing the program
turns out it’s not just because we have
the best prices
on okra and kalalu
we recognize that systemic racism
is one of the factors that holds food
insecurity in place but we in the
communities that we work alongside
have often lacked the race-based data to
reinforce these observations
to address this issue in 2019
foodshare partnered with the proof food
insecurity
research team at the university of
toronto to
engage in one of the first ever studies
of
canada community health survey data
looking
specifically through the lens of race
the question that drove this study was
how
do black and white households differ in
their risk
of food insecurity
the results of the study matched what
community leaders in the black community
had been saying
for decades and already knew
when the study looked at food insecurity
and compared between black and white
households in canada it found that
10 percent of white households are food
insecure
compared with 28
of black households the study also found
that black households are
3.5 times more likely to be food
insecure than white households
the study also looked at household
composition
and found that for white households if
you
own your home or if you live in a
two-parent household
then you are less likely to be food
insecure than if you rent your home
or live in a single-parent household but
if you are black the risk of food
insecurity remains
significantly higher regardless of
whether you rent or own your home
and regardless of your household
composition
these results suggest that the increased
food insecurity
found within the black community in
canada is at least
in part due to the additional barriers
that these households face
because they are black
this demonstrates the impact of
structural racism and anti-black
racism in canada and how it makes it
more difficult for black folks to access
wealth leaving us at greater risk
of food insecurity
structural racism is a form of racism
that is embedded as a normalized
practice in a society
or institution and it’s best understood
through examples of how
it works structural racism
in the education system makes it less
likely for non-white folks to graduate
from high school or be accepted into
post-secondary institutions
structural racism in the hiring process
makes it less likely for non-white folks
to be hired to well-paying
stable positions structural racism in
the financial sector
makes it less likely for non-white folks
to be
approved for a loan if they need one
if somebody belongs to a community that
is
less likely to be able to succeed in the
education system
is less likely to be able to access a
well-paying stable job
and is less likely to be approved for a
loan
when they need one that person is almost
certainly going to be at greater risk of
food
insecurity that is what we are seeing
in these statistics
so how does that impact how we think
about the solutions to this problem
if we accept that food insecurity is
linked to poverty and that poverty is
linked to structural racism
then we must change how individuals
organizations and institutions think
about the solutions to this problem
if the problem is actually about money
then the solutions
must also be about money and how to get
more of it into the pockets of people
who need it
the government likes to frame food
charities and food banks as an effective
way to respond
to food insecurity as somebody who works
for a charitable food organization
myself
i will be the first to tell you that we
are never
going to be able to solve this problem
we
already struggle to access the resources
that we need
and the scale and scope of problems like
food insecurity
are well beyond the ability of any
organization to be able to solve
in fact it is the government that bears
responsibility
to uphold this commitment
in 1976 the canadian government signed
on to what’s called the international
covenant
on economic social and cultural rights
this document contained a commitment by
the government to create the conditions
under which everyone in canada could
feed themselves
and their communities with dignity today
and
into the future but when we look around
today
we can immediately see that the
government has not upheld this
commitment
especially in communities
disproportionately impacted by food
insecurity
in framing food banks and food charities
as an effective solution to this problem
the government is running away from its
commitment to uphold the right to food
and we should not accept
this response all of us
in canada our friends our parents
our neighbors we all have the right to
hold our elected officials responsible
to this commitment
anyone can pick up the phone and call
their local representative
to demand that they do more to address
issues of food insecurity
and to push other elected
representatives to do the same
this sort of public advocacy work is
so powerful because only the government
has the power and the resources to do
things like
increase minimum wages or implement
a universal pharmacare program or a
universal basic housing guarantee
alongside perhaps a universal basic
income
the sorts of systemic changes
that will actually address problems like
food insecurity
but what can organizations do to address
this issue in addition to advocating to
government
well for organizations to address the
increased food insecurity
that has been identified in the black
community and that almost
certainly exists in other racialized
communities as well
we must address structural
racism structural racism
leads to greater poverty in the black
community
which leads to greater food insecurity
in the black community
therefore any work that addresses
and dismantles structural racism is also
working towards
increased food insecurity food security
for communities disproportionately
impacted
by these systems
as civil rights leaders have been saying
for decades one key solution
to this challenge is to hire more
black people to stable
well-paid positions of decision making
power within organizations
these positions should not be contract
or temporary and they should include
things like
paid sick leave and health benefits
these sorts of positions are so powerful
because they ensure a steady stream of
long-term
income into a household and provide the
sort of long-term
financial stability that low-paying or
contract work
simply cannot provide
these are the sorts of positions that
actually protect households against food
insecurity
but as a result of structural racism
these positions are currently less
likely to go
to black people
for organizations to address this
challenge it’s going to require many of
them to undergo
a substantial change in the way they
operate and i can give you a few
examples of what this might look like
organizations first can begin to collect
and use race-based data to understand
where within their staff and boards of
directors
diversity gaps may currently lie
organizations can also do things like
increasing wages
especially for their lowest paid
positions
and establish wage ratios that limit the
difference between the lowest paid
and highest paid staff members in the
organization
organizations can also reduce reliance
on paid
credentials for their job openings in
recognition of the fact that many
institutions discriminate
in their recruitment process and the
fact that many qualified applicants
simply can’t afford to access these
credentials
organizations can also work
with grassroots community organization
working
alongside communities that face
disproportionate barriers to accessing
the money they need for food
to ensure that calls for job applicants
get reach a wider diversity
of candidates alongside
all of this organizations must continue
to collect
race-based data in order to gauge the
impact of these interventions all of
these suggestions
are designed to reduce the barriers for
black
indigenous and other racialized folks in
navigating
the hiring process
in doing food justice work i have come
to understand that the solutions to food
insecurity
have much less to do with food and
much more to do with dismantling systems
of oppression
like structural racism
we must also remember that any solutions
to food insecurity
must be income based and
be implemented alongside a universal
joined up network of robust social
programs because with enough money in
people’s pockets
and a social safety net that actually
works for everyone
we’ll be in a position to end food
insecurity
and poverty regardless of what community
you come from
we must also remember that it is the
government
that bears the responsibility for making
this happen
but that we as individuals have the
power
and the responsibility to hold our
elected officials accountable to these
commitments
don’t be afraid to call your local
representative
you could do that right after watching
this talk
if they start talking to you about food
banks
or meal programs you can remind them
that these are not the solutions
that are going to eradicate this problem
in the long term
ultimately the solutions are
frustratingly
simple people need to be able to
access the money they need for food
we must get our elected representatives
to understand that the solutions to food
insecurity
must be income based
we must also address the fact that
minority communities
like the black community currently face
greater barriers
due to structural racism
we must get more
black indigenous and other racialized
folks
into stable well-paying positions of
decision-making
power within organizations and we must
all remember that we cannot talk about
food insecurity
without also talking about poverty and
structural
racism if we can manage
to do all of this then perhaps
we’ll be in a position to imagine a
future
in which everyone in canada can feed
themselves
their families and their communities
with dignity
and where food insecurity is a distant
memory
thank you
you