Abstract
Over the past two decades, the demand for charitable food assistance has steadily grown, and a massive ad hoc system of food banks has become established in Canada. To assess the food insecurity and nutritional vulnerability of one subgroup of food bank users, interviews were conducted with a sample of 153 women in families using emergency food relief programs in Metropolitan Toronto. Ninety percent reported household incomes which were less than two-thirds of the ‘poverty line’, and 94% reported some degree of food insecurity over the previous 12 months. Seventy percent reported some level of absolute food deprivation, despite using food banks. The findings highlight the limited capacity of ad hoc, charitable food assistance programs to respond to problems of household food insecurity which arise in the context of severe and chronic poverty.
Résumé
Au cours des deux dernières décennies, la demande d’aide alimentaire auprès des organismes caritatifs n’a cessé d’augmenter et un important système de banques alimentaires s’est mis en place au Canada. Pour évaluer la précarité et la vulnérabilité alimentaires d’un sous-groupe d’usagers des banques alimentaires, on a interviewé un échantillon de 153 femmes dans des familles faisant appel aux programmes d’aide alimentaire d’urgence dans la région métropolitaine de Toronto. Quatre-vingt dix pour cent d’entre elles ont déclaré disposer d’un revenu représentant moins de deux tiers du revenu correspondant au « seuil de pauvreté », et 94 % d’entre elles ont déclaré avoir craint manquer de nourriture au cours des 12 mois précédents. Soixante dix pour cent ont déclaré un certain manque absolu de nourriture malgré leur recours aux banques alimentaires. Les résultats soulignent les capacités limitées des programmes d’aide alimentaire caritatifs pour répondre aux problèmes d’insécurité alimentaire vécue dans les foyers souffrant de pauvreté extrême et chronique.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Economic Council of Canada. Good Jobs Bad Jobs: Employment in the Service Economy. Ottawa, ON: Minister of Supply and Services, 1990.
National Council of Welfare. Poverty Profil. 1995. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1997.
Tarasuk V, Davis B. Responses to food insecurity in the changing Canadian welfare state. J Nutr Educ 1996;28(2):71–75.
Riches G. Hunger in Canada: Abandoning the right to food. In: Riches G (Ed), First World Hunger, Food Security and Welfare Politics. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997.
Davidson B. Marc. 1989. Hunger Count Report. Toronto, ON: Canadian Association of Food Banks, 1989.
Canadian Associaton of Food Banks. Hunger Coun. 1997. A Report on Emergency Food Assistance in Canada. Toronto, ON: Canadian Association of Food Banks, 1997.
Anderson, SA. Core indicators of nutritional state for difficult-to-sample populations. J Nutr 1990;120(11S):1559–600.
Joint Steering Committee. Nutrition for Health: An Agenda for Action. Ottawa, ON. 1996.
Campbell CC, Desjardins E. A model and research approach for studying the management of limited food resources by low income families. J Nutr Educ 1989;21(4):162–71.
Fitchen, JM. Hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in the contemporary United States: Some observations on their social and cultural context. Food and Foodways 1988;2(3):309–33.
National Council of Welfare. Women and Poverty Revisited. Ottawa, ON: Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1990.
Tarasuk V, Maclean H. The food problems of low-income single mothers: An ethnographic study. Can Home Econ J 1990;40(2):76–82.
Tarasuk VS, Beaton, GH. Women’s dietary intakes in the context of household food insecurity. J Nutr 1999;129:672–79.
Hamilton W, Cook J, Thompson W, et al. Household Food Security in the United States in 1995. Summary Report of the Food Security Measurement Project. Alexandria, VA: United States Department of Agriculture, 1997.
Hamilton W, Cook J, Thompson W, et al. Household Food Security in the United States in 1995. Technical Report of the Food Security Measurement Project. Alexandria, VA: United States Department of Agriculture, 1997.
Kendall A, Olson CM, Frongillo, EA. Validation of the Radimer/Cornell measures of hunger and food insecurity. J Nutr 1995;125:2793–801.
Seidel J, Friese S, Leonard, DC. The Ethnograph v4.0: A User’s Guide. Amherst, MA: Qualis Research Associates, 1995.
Jacobs Starkey L, Kuhnlein H, Gray-Donald K. Food bank users: Sociodemographic and nutritional characteristics. CMAJ 1998;158(9):1143–49.
National Council of Welfare. Welfare Income. 1995. Ottawa, ON: Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1997.
Hobbs K, MacEachern W, McIvor A, Turner S. Waste of a nation: Poor people speak out about charity. Can Rev Soc Pol 1993;31:94–104.
Poppendieck J. Dilemmas of emergency food: A guide for the perplexed. Agriculture and Human Values 1994;11(4):69–76.
Riches G. Food Banks and the Welfare Crisis. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Council on Social Development, 1986.
Tarasuk VS, Maclean H. The institutionalization of food banks in Canada: A public health concern. Can J Public Health 1990;81:331–32.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was funded by Health Canada through the National Health Research and Development Program (NHRDP), NHRDP Project No. 6606-5609-201.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tarasuk, V.S., Beaton, G.H. Household Food Insecurity and Hunger Among Families Using Food Banks. Can J Public Health 90, 109–113 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404112
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404112