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THURSDAY, oCToBER 24, 2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO A
Black Canadians experience food
insecurity at nearly twice the rate
of white Canadians, even when
adjusting for household income,
home ownership, immigration
status and education, according
to a new report.
One of the report’s authors says
the findings – based on a survey of
491,400 Canadians – reveal “a very
significant problem of racism.”
Rather than focusing exclu-
sively on food banks or school
breakfast programs, advocates
and researchers say the solution
to food insecurity lies in address-
ing the systemic discrimination
that black people face at dispro-
portionately high rates.
The report, authored by Sim-
ran Dhunna and Valerie Tarasuk
at the University of Toronto and
presented by the non-profit Food-
Share, drew from responses from
five cycles of the Canada Commu-
nity Health Survey, conducted by
Statistics Canada. It found that
while 10 per cent of white house-
holds experienced food insecuri-
ty, 28.4 per cent of black house-
holds did.
While “severe” food insecurity
might mean skipping meals en-
tirely or needing to access a food
bank, “marginal” food security is
worrying about consistent food
access.
While home ownership typi-
cally offers protection against dis-
ruptions such as job loss since a
house is an asset that can be bor-
rowed against, that doesn’t ap-
pear to be the experience of black
homeowners. One of the most
striking findings of the report was
that black homeowners had the
same rate of food insecurity as
white renters: 14 per cent. Prof. Ta-
rasuk theorized that this could be
due to black people owning
homes with mortgages or homes
with lower value compared with
their white counterparts.
To explain why black people
who had the same household in-
come as white people still experi-
enced much higher rates of food
insecurity, Leslie Campbell, the
director of programs for Food-
Share, suggests the quality of their
employment might be to blame.
Black people are more likely to
have precarious employment, or
work jobs without benefits, he
said, and they have less access to
the savings and credit that can
help them recover from job loss or
unexpected expenses. A large
body of research suggests black
people in Canada and the U.S. ex-
perience high rates of housing
and employment discrimination.
“What we’re seeing is a tremen-
dous story of the need for us to
start thinking of anti-racism poli-
cies as food security policies,”
Prof. Tarasuk said.
The solution may lie in study-
ing Canadian seniors.
Sharon Johnson, a 66-year-old
Haligonian who is African Nova
Scotian, has experienced both
ends of the spectrum of food inse-
curity in her lifetime: severe and
marginal.
Every two weeks, she pores
over the weekly flyers, seeing who
has a sale on 10-pound bags of po-
tatoes or chicken drumsticks and
plans her trips to multiple grocery
stores accordingly, careful not to
overspend.
She can only occasionally af-
ford a splurge on the expensive
items, such as broccoli or oranges,
which also happen to be the
things she’s always being told she,
a person with diabetes, should
consume more often.
“Everything healthy is expen-
sive and so that kind of tells me
that unless you’re rich or you have
a high-end, high-paying job,
you’re the only people that areprivileged enough to eat healthy,”
she said
Still, she says her situation now
is a great improvement over what
it was decades ago when she was
on social assistance and raising
three children on her own. Back
then, she relied heavily on food
banks where highly processed,
high-sodium packaged or canned
foods were available, but no fresh
fruit or vegetables.
Now, with a guaranteed in-
come in the form of Old Age Secu-
rity, she has more freedom and
flexibility in her shopping – and
more dignity.
Research published in the Can-
adian Public Policy journal found
that rates of food insecurity drop
after individuals turned 65 due to
access to Old Age Security. Be-
cause of this, those who work in
the field of food security cham-
pion the introduction of a guaran-
teed basic income as a solution
because it’s universal and would
help even those who face system-
ic discrimination.
“I think having food programs
and access to food banks are solu-
tions to a problem that’s already
happened. We need something
further upstream,” said Louise
Smith, the interim director of
Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless
Youth. Her Toronto organization
serves food to 123 youth a day, and
racialized youth are overrepre-
sented in that population.
“It’s really looking at equitable
access to basic income and those
sorts of things to let people make
their own choices around what
types of food they would like,” she
said.Reportfindslinkbetweenfoodinsecurity,racism
Shortageofstable
foodaccessfoundin
28.4%ofblackhomes,
and10%ofwhite
householdsinCanada
DAKSHANA BASCARAMURTY
Sharon Johnson, who
raised her children as a
single mother on social
assistance by visiting
food banks, looks
through grocery flyers
at her home in Halifax
on Wednesday.
DARREN CALABRESE/
THE GLOBE AND MAIL$60 thousand50
40302025 %20151050100
BlackhOusehOldsBlack
rentersBlack
hONeOSnersWhite
rentersWhite
hONeOSnersAveSagehousehold incomePeScent,inCanadaOveSallBlack
householdsBlack householdsaSe...White
households3.56timesmoSe
likelytoexpeSience
Lood insecuSitythan
whitehouseholdsand...
1.88timesmoSe
likelywhenadjusting
LoSeducation, house-
hold makeup, income,
pSovinceand immigSationPeScentageoLhouseholdsexpeSiencingLood insecuSityJOHNSOPINSKI/THE GLOBEANDMAIL,SOURCE: UNIVERSITYOF TORONTOFood-secuSehouseholdsINCOMESTRONGEST LINKTOFOODINSECURITYRATEOFFOODINSECURITY RACIALDISPARITYVULNERABILITY BASEDONHOMEOWNERSHIPSTATUSWhitehOusehOldsFood-insecuSehouseholds- 4 %
10%- 4 %
NEWS |