Huge increase in hunger
Almost half the population short of food, report states
Elaine Anselmi
Northern News Services
Monday, April 25, 2016
NUNAVUT
Nearly half of households in Nunavut are experiencing food insecurity - the highest level since data-gathering began in 2005, according to a recently released report using numbers gathered in 2014.
Volunteers in March help out at the Pirujat Pangnirtung Food Pantry, which aims to tackle food insecurity with tasty recipes. - photo courtesy of Rose Desiree Ze Meka |
Food security is generally defined as access to safe and nutritious foods in sufficient amounts to lead a healthy active life. In Nunavut, 46.8 per cent of households fell outside of this definition.
The report, titled Household Food Insecurity in Canada 2014, was released by PROOF, an interdisciplinary team of international researchers working toward policy that addresses food insecurity, supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
By all accounts, the report is alarming.
Across Canada, the participating jurisdictions included Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Combined, the regions shared a 12 per cent average of food insecurity in 2014 - representing 1.3 million households and nearly one million youth, according to the report.
In the North, the issue is far greater, with the NWT also having a higher-than-average rate of food insecurity of just more than 24 per cent.
The statistics become far greater when considering households with children. In Nunavut, 60 per cent of households with children under 18 years of age were food insecure. Across Canada, the average is one in six children living with food insecurity.
Various factors were suggested to increase rates of food insecurity, including reliance on social assistance, employment insurance or workers' compensation. As well, 25.7 per cent of aboriginal households reported food insecurity.
Food insecurity is measured in the report in four areas - marginal, moderate and severe insecurity, as well as secure.
Marginally insecure is considered as an ongoing concern for running out of food, or a lack of selection of food due to limited funds. This made up four per cent of Nunavut's total.
In the territory, the highest portion of households reporting food insecurity were moderately insecure. At 23.5 per cent, this group is forced to compromise on the amount of food or the quality of that food due to a lack of money.
Those reporting severe food insecurity which includes missing meals and having limited intake that could mean going for days without food, were the remaining and astonishing 19.3 per cent.
"Virtually all severely food insecure households worry about running out of food before they are able to get money to buy more, and the vast majority reported routinely cutting the size of meals and skipping meals," the report states.
"In nearly one-third of severely food insecure households, adults routinely went an entire day without food."
In the territory of just more than 30,000 people, food insecurity affected 4,300 people in 2014. Of those, 1,600 people were severe cases.
The average in Nunavut is climbing, unlike many of the provinces that saw slight declines from 2013 into 2014. Perhaps the most significant increase was seen between 2011 and 2012, when the portion of food insecure households in Nunavut rose to 45.2 per cent from 36.4 per cent. The total dropped very slightly to 45 per cent in 2013 before climbing up again in 2014.
"The geographic patterning of food insecurity, with the alarming rates in the North and the Maritimes and the density of affected households in our largest provinces, suggests that reducing the prevalence of food insecurity requires attention by provincial, territorial, and federal levels of government," the report states.
