Back in October 2022, Food First NL partnered with PROOF, Nourish, and the Coalition for Healthy School Food to submit our recommendations for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Social and Economic Well-Being Plan. Our recommendations for shifts in public policy approach social and economic well-being through a food systems and food security lens.
Our organizations share the belief that a more just and sustainable food system is possible and that we already have the tools to create drastic improvements to well-being for everyone. Our hope is that these recommendations will encourage the provincial government into immediate and bold action as they develop and implement the plan.
“The existence of poverty… is a policy choice and different choices are possible. We hope that the Social and Economic Well-Being Plan recognizes this and lays out a bold roadmap to a better future.”
- Setting the Table: Recommendations for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Social and Economic Well-Being Plan
About the Social and Economic Well-Being Plan
During fall 2022, the Provincial Government launched engagement sessions, which included requests for input from online questionnaires, meetings, and written submissions.
From the EngageNL website:
“Well-being means having what we need to create and maintain the lives we want for ourselves. Well-being includes our health, financial security and enjoying what we do every day. It also means having positive relationships, and feeling like we belong in our community.
The Provincial Government is developing a renewed approach to addressing poverty, as well as increasing focus on well-being for children, youth and their families. There is a close link between reducing poverty and improving well-being. Therefore, this work will be combined under a Social and Economic Well-Being Plan.”
Our Recommendations
The Provincial Government proposed a focus on six components of social and economic well-being: food security, early years, education, housing, income, and community.
Our recommendations include some cross-cutting concepts across those six components and then are divided into each category. In total we provided 51 recommendations, many of which are summarized below.
Cross-Cutting Concepts
While our recommendations are divided into each of those six components, there are a few cross-cutting concepts that we feel it’s important to highlight:
Poverty is the root cause: Interventions to reduce poverty should be the starting point across all the areas of well-being.
Taking a lifecycle approach: The iniquities that should be addressed by this plan all have consequences that extend throughout people’s lives.
Lived experience leadership is critical: This plan, and the design of any interventions that flow from it, must be deeply rooted in the perspectives of those who experience barriers to accessing power and resources.
This will cost money: It is not realistic to expect large improvements in well-being without new investments. Any revenue tools should be employed in a way that does not disproportionately impact low-income households.
The climate crisis will define our future: The climate crisis is already deeply impacting well-being in this province, particularly for those living in Northern Labrador. Through the lifetime of the Social and Economic Well-Being Plan, those impacts will spread southwards and strengthen, and the impacts of climate events on this province elsewhere will only become more evident.
Food Security
“The recognition of household food insecurity as an indicator of social and economic well-being is important, since it tells us more about households’ material circumstances… The only interventions proven to reduce household food insecurity are those that improve these circumstances for low-income households.”
Policy action must target income inadequacy and improve the amount and stability of income for low-income households because poverty is the root cause of food insecurity
Analyze and report household food insecurity as an indicator of social and economic well-being
Set explicit, binding, legislated targets for reducing household food insecurity and a plan to monitor progress through policies that improve incomes of low-income households (similar to legislated targets in P.E.I.)
Make the elimination of need for food charity a core element of the Plan, since studies repeatedly show that charitable food programs do not reduce food insecurity.
Strengthen public transportation in rural and urban areas by investing in existing and new infrastructure to reduce transportation-related challenges to accessing food.
Plan for thriving and resilient food systems — see all ten recommendations from the Atlantic Food Vision.
Food and the Early Years
“In 2021, 1 in 4 children under 18 living in Newfoundland and Labrador lived in a food-insecure household. This amounts to 22,000 children and is the highest rate of children affected by household food insecurity of any province… it is clear from the high rate of food insecurity among children in N.L. that more can be done.”
Increase the benefit size of the Newfoundland and Labrador Child Benefit (NLCB) and Prenatal Infant Nutrition Supplement.
Ensure that low-income families benefit equitably from the Canada–Newfoundland and Labrador Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, Early Learning and Childcare Action Plan, and Child Care Subsidy Program and that these programs provide continued financial relief.
Food and Education
“There is urgency and opportunity in the school food landscape in this province. Pandemic impacts on businesses have… [left] many schools with empty kitchens and cafeterias. Those could be filled by programs that open up school food to all, while creating opportunities for local economic development and environmental sustainability.”
Create a truly universal school lunch program for all K-12 students in Newfoundland and Labrador. Canada is the only wealthy country without a national, universal school food program. Although local programs help to fill this gap at a community level, this lack of programming creates a major gap in children's health and well-being.
Establish strong local procurement targets for school food. The creation and expansion of school food programs is an opportunity to strengthen local food production systems and to connect young people to these food systems through in-school experiences.
Food and Housing
“The vulnerability of low-income renters to food insecurity can be addressed by improving their incomes or reducing their housing costs. This plan is an opportunity to further integrate housing and income policies to reduce food insecurity and improve social and economic well-being.”
Evaluate the impact of existing housing policies on household food insecurity.
Enhance and expand rent programs and introduce additional income benefits to provide more support for low-income renters.
Food and Income
“While recent measures to support people during this time of rising cost of living may help mitigate the impact of recent inflation, they are not nearly enough to address food insecurity. To do so, policies need to ensure wages and social programs are sufficient for basic needs.”
Ensure that Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a liveable and predictable Basic Income to support their health and well-being, as recommended by the Health Accord.
In advance of the establishment of a Basic Income, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador should immediately:
Reform the Income Support Program to provide recipients with incomes that are adequate for basic needs
Permanently index income support amounts to inflation, plus 1% to address the lag
Establish the necessary procedures to transparently calculate and annually update a regionalized living wage for Newfoundland and Labrador
Establish an aggressive timeline to bring minimum wages in line with the living wage
Food and Community
“Food plays a critical role in community life. Growing, harvesting, preparing, and sharing food is at the foundation of some of our most meaningful interactions with other people… [although] there are reasons to be hopeful about food and community in Newfoundland and Labrador… we also face deep challenges to the inclusiveness of our food systems.”
Establish a dedicated, permanent fund to support lived-experience inclusion in decision-making.
Establish regional Lived Experience Guidance Councils, that are supported by staff and significant resourcing, to advise the provincial Health Authority.
Prioritize the protection and re-establishment of Indigenous food systems in decisions around land use, resource extraction, and governance in particular.
Develop a regulatory framework for food production, processing, and consumption that enables rather than restricts Indigenous food systems.
Integrate traditional knowledge keepers and food providers into models of care within the healthcare system.
Support initiatives that improve access to cultural foods
Enhance programs that support populations that are put at disproportionate risk of food insecurity by systems of oppression, including women, racialized communities, and disabled people
Include age-friendly communities principles in all land-use governance
Provide local foods at outpatient group programming.
Implement local food basket delivery programs as part of outreach services and ensure the food is culturally appropriate, free or low-cost, and processed for easy meal preparation.
What Happens Now?
The Social and Economic Well-Being Plan’s completion timeline hasn’t been announced yet but we are expecting it in the first half of 2023. We are hopeful that the plan will seize the opportunity to make radical shifts in public policy because it’s clear that urgent action is needed.
In the meantime, we will continue to advocate for public policy changes to address food insecurity in the province and improve well-being for all, and particularly those who are failed by the current systems.
If you have questions about our submission, please contact us at info@foodfirstnl.ca.
About the Submitters
Food First NL
Established in 1998, Food First NL is a provincial, non-profit organization with a 20+ year history of collaboration with communities and organizations across Newfoundland and Labrador to advance food security in the province. Food First NL’s mission is to actively promote comprehensive, community-based solutions to ensure access to adequate and healthy food for all. We envision a province where all people at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
PROOF
PROOF is an interdisciplinary research team investigating household food insecurity in Canada led by Dr. Valerie Tarasuk at the University of Toronto. The goal of this research program is to identify effective policy approaches to reduce household food insecurity. PROOF’s work over the past decade has revealed the extent and severity of food insecurity in Canada, highlighted the tremendous toll on health and healthcare, and provided empirical evidence for the need for income-based policy responses.
Nourish
Nourish: the Future of Food in Health Care has been a collaborative initiative led by the McConnell Foundation with partners including Food Secure Canada, Health Care Without Harm, Health CareCAN, the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, and the Academy for Systems Change. In 2019, the Arrell Family Foundation joined Nourish as a core partner. Nourish works with the healthcare sector to spread and deepen innovations that use the power of food to build health for people and the planet. We seek to transform food served in hospitals and long-term care and to nourish preventative health for communities towards a planetary health care system.
Coalition for Healthy School Food
The Coalition for Healthy School Food is a Canada-wide, non-partisan network of more than 200 non-profit organizations in every province and territory advocating for public investment in a universal cost-shared nutritious school meal program with consistent standards. Our vision is that all children aged 3-18 enrolled in elementary and secondary schools across Canada will have daily access to a healthy meal at school. We urge the government of Canada to include funds for school food in Budget 2023. In each province and territory, our members advocate for increased support for school food from those jurisdictions.
