Fed Up: Exploring Food Insecurity in NL
Food First NL has partnered with CBC NL to develop Fed Up, a year-long series exploring food insecurity in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Food insecurity is a term used to describe the struggle to afford food. Poverty is the root cause of food insecurity—the less money a person has the more likely they are to experience food insecurity.
Newfoundland and Labrador currently has the highest food insecurity rate of all Canadian provinces. At least 15.9% of households struggle to put food on the table. (1) Many of these households are single-parent families headed by women. Single mothers have some of the highest food insecurity rates in Canada. (2)
Fed Up (Part 1): Single Parents and Food Insecurity, hosted by CBC’s Jane Adey and Adam Walsh, aired on Here & Now on February 19th.
Panelists included:
Natasha Bader – Coordinator at the St. John’s Women’s Centre
Elaine Balsom – Executive Director at the Single Parents Association of Newfoundland and Labrador
Heather Bartlett – Executive Director at Daybreak Parent Child Centre
Ellie Jones – Program Director at THRIVE
Dara Squires – a Single Mom
The panel discussed the many reasons single mothers and their children are more likely to experience food insecurity, such as lack of affordable child care, inadequate minimum wage and social assistance rates, gendered violence, and the high costs of housing, utilities, and food. They also recommended “first steps” to address poverty and food insecurity in the province. These included raising wages and social assistance rates, removing barriers to education and employment, making housing and child care affordable, and coming together as a community.
“We all have a stake in food insecurity because we all have a stake in the future of our province and the children who are growing up here. So we need collaboration across our government but also across us as a community.”
Over the course of the year, the Fed Up series will also look at how rural residents, new Canadians and Indigenous peoples experience food insecurity.
Fed Up (Part 1): Single Parents and Food Insecurity is available on CBC NL’s YouTube channel. You can also read Fed Up articles to learn more about food insecurity in NL here, here, here and here, and CBC NL created this short video to define the issue.
PROOF. (2018). Household food insecurity in Canada, 2017: https://proof.utoronto.ca/.
Tarasuk, V, Mitchell, A, & Dachner, N. (2016). Household food insecurity in Canada, 2014. Toronto: Research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity (PROOF).
