Food Insecurity In Canada

We can live without the latest clothes, expensive cars, the newest phones and even electricity but what we cannot live without if food. “Food insecurity – the inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints – is a serious public health problem in Canada. It negatively impacts physical, mental, and social health, and costs our healthcare system considerably”. (PROOF, August 31, 2016) In Canada food insecurities mainly effect children, 1 in 6 Canadian children under the age of 18 is food insecure. (PROOF, August 31, 2016) Food is an important basic need for survival. Without being able to access this, how will this impact a child’s ability to fully develop? Children who are food insecure often are left cognitively, emotionally,

In Canada, 1 in 5 children is at risk of starting the school day on an empty stomach due to a lack of access to nutritious food. In Aboriginal communities, the ratio is actual 1 in 2 children. (Breakfastclubscanada, n.d.) Children are not able to fully learn with an empty stomach, without food this can affect a child’s cognitive development. During the first three years of life a child’s brain is developing very rapidly, building neural networks through synaptic connections among billions of interconnected neurons. (Lee, 2012) If this area isn’t able develop in this critical period a child will struggle with cognitive development. The first place this problem starts to emerge is school. Children who have no access to food during school can often experience high-level of inattention and memory problems that can lead to poor academic outcomes. (Lee, 2012) Good nutrition is important in the early stages of life for a child to be able to reach their full potential, without food learning becomes a challenge. This often effects a child academically, according to research done by POOF, Children who were food insecure showed lower test scores in math and achievement testing than those children who were food secure (PROOF, August 31, 2016) Without food during the critical period of time for development, it can be a threat to a child’s future physical, mental health, and

Exposure to severe food insecurity leaves an indelible mark on children’s wellbeing, manifesting in greater risks for health conditions (Shimmin, 2016) Food insecure children have the highest rate of hospitalization due to poor overall health. Food insecure children are at least twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health and at least 3 times more likely to have asthma, compared to food secure children. (Lee, 2012) Food insecure children often do not get the nutrients and nutrition to develop, leading to a long line of health problems. The most common health problem of a food insecure child is obesity. Families of food insecure children often buy food in high calories rather than nutritious food due to the fact high calorie foods are cheaper. The food market has sky rocketed due to the rise in food prices, many people can’t afford the prices and turn to the high calorie foods for the cheap price and so they can have enough food for each month. A recent nutrition study of Canadian youth found that boys, from food insecure households had a higher prevalence of obesity than their food secure counterparts. (PROOF, August 31, 2016) Food insecure children tend to have empty calorie diets that are high in refined sugars and low in iron, which can have behavioural consequences including hyperkinesia, inattention, and poor memory (Ke, 2015) Without the access