PROOF’s new report finds persistently high rates of food insecurity in Canada
Posted: August 18, 2022
Categories: GoodFoodBites / Research
PROOF has released a new report in their series on the scale and severity of household food insecurity in Canada. After six reports, their blog explains, the story remains the same — food insecurity is a large problem that hasn’t gotten any better.
The new report, drawing from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey, found that 15.9 per cent of households across the ten provinces were food-insecure in 2021, meaning 5.8 million people, including 1.4 million children, lived in households that had inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints.
In Ontario, the report shows that 1 in 6 households (16.1%) were food-insecure in 2021, amounting to 2.3 million Ontarians; 1 in 5 children in Ontario (20.6%) lived in a food-insecure household, amounting to half a million children.
“The persistently high rate of food insecurity is deeply concerning, especially given the toll that food insecurity takes on people’s health and our healthcare system,” shares Tim Li, PROOF Research Program Coordinator. “We can expect the prevalence and severity of food insecurity to get even worse if the incomes of low-income households don’t keep up with the rising cost of living, as record high inflation continues.”
We encourage you to access the full report on the PROOF website for more information, including their policy recommendations. PROOF has also released the video below on this latest research.