Food insecurity & Canada
 

Article on food insecurity issues in Canada, interesting read and has some good points.

Despite being a necessity in life, food can be a luxury for some and seems to be growing with food banks seeing increases and more regulars.


Going hungry: Why millions of Canadians can’t afford healthy food | Globalnews.ca

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Maybe Oink has some spare Fish Pie.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Naff them.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Likely has some truth to it, maybe selective journalism... who knows.

My local food bank down the street which I drive past twice/day is open every Tuesday & what I see are folks with expensive newish cars [Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, BMW, latest Japanese models] parked outside loading up with food bank take out. Seeing those same patrons all on cell phones both enetering & exiting the food bank. Few if any I observed that got off at the bus stop or that walked down the street to the food bank.

Could it be that food bank users all mostly middle class, folks that have a roof over their head, cell phones, internet, cable TV, latest gadgets, frequent coffee shops, fast food places down to take out food?

I'm wondering what economic class of persons frequent thrift stores - some folks will say 'you wont find me dead in one of those places'

I'm not saying the Global TV article is not true, its just some more info on 'why folks don't have enough money for food'. Is it purely they don't have enough of the right food because they don't have enopugh income, or is it their income is spent on other things - toys, latest gadgets, habits, take out food, coffee shops?

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

You might be seeing people collecting it for food parcel delivery for others. I can't imagine NB is alone in requiring some evidence of or assessing people's financial situation.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Usually it's because they need to pay for things like rent, debt and heating. Food comes next on the list.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Or in Canada's case, medications. Or not.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Do welfare recipients need to pay for meds ? Seems a bit onerous...

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

That is certainly not what I have experienced from using food banks, just about everyone I have ever seen arrive by foot, bike, or from a ride from someone else and mostly on disability, social assistance and single parents and just by what people are wearing clothing wise, are certainly not what I'd call well dressed.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Depends on province, but in BC you get medical benefits while on welfare or disability and it does provide prescription coverage, however not all medications are covered, but most will be.

Ontario provides medication coverage as well for medications for most medications but not all, but one may need to pay a $2 co-payment.

And rent is eating up more and more income for renters. Our rent for example eats up over 50% of our income right off the bat, electric comes next on the list, medical costs, transportation costs, then food.

We can buy food still, although I do have to get creative and probably not the best diet since it's heavy on pasta since it's cheap and goes a long way, generally have stopped buying meat and unless frozen and on sale vegetables, but luckily they put frozen veggies on sale every few weeks, so doable still.


I've been in the situation before where I could not buy food, I could visit the food bank 2 times a month, and would be able on average able to spread what I received about 3 days of meals, the rest of the time I really had to learn to just live without eating much, at the time after rent, I only had 95 dollars to survive the month on and that had to cover transit fares and any other related costs to life.

Depending on location people may only be able to access a food bank 1 or 2 times a month, and you only get a small grocery bag worth, 3 maybe 4 days of food for a single person and usually not healthy, I got a lot of pastries and junk food, not much actual food, but when your hungry day old pastries fill the belly so no complaints.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

I used to buy day old pastries on the way to school. "Yesterday's cakes" were half price and I could buy one and have enough left to go down the chippy for lunch.

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

A couple of mates have just called, they're fishing the north arm of the Frasier river and have caught 11 salmon, smallest about 20lbs. Maybe they should donate them. ;)

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

We used to go to the chippy at dinner time and the Greek bloke who owed it felt sorry for us so used to give the batter bits for free. Lovely with lashings of vinegar and salt. :thumbup:

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

I liked your hand caught salmon anecdote ! Is it feasible for you to river fish or pier fish and catch some more for your wife ?

Re: Food insecurity & Canada
 

Batter bits? Sounds posh. We called them Scraps, and they went perfectly on top of the chips inside the butty.