One in six Canadian children experienced food insecurity in 2021, says new study

One in six Canadian children were affected by household food insecurity in 2021 says a new study by University of Toronto researchers.

Released on Wednesday, the study, Household Food Insecurity in Canada, looked at food insecurity rates during the pandemic. It found about 5.8 million Canadians experience food insecurity, including 1.4 million children.

As back-to-school season approaches, organizations like Community Fridge K-W are doing their best to make meal times less stressful. 

“When we talk about university students, there's this general assumption that if you're on campus, you're privileged and you're accessing education, so you of course should be able to afford food,” said Kamil Ahmed, who started Community Fridge K-W in August 2020. “The reality is that if you're in school, for a lot of students, that's where all of your money and resources are going.” 

While the fridge doesn’t monitor exact user numbers, they do three daily check-ins to evaluate community use and need. Compared to peak COVID, the organization has received many requests for food hampers. Ahmed says that increased hamper requests signal community members are having a harder time getting to the fridge, which was already designed to be easily accessible.

“We understand that there has been an increase in fridge use or demand for the fridge and part of that from conversations is a result of like food is really expensive,” said Ahmed. Gas prices have increased difficulties for community members and volunteers alike.

 “Basic things like oranges and bananas are noticeably more expensive, especially for those folks who do count their dollars and do look at the receipts for every little item because of the needs and the budgets that they're working with.”

Young people use the fridge at unique times, during school hours for breakfast or lunch and at night which affords them more privacy. Volunteers have noticed a large increase of specifically middle-and-high school students accessing the fridge in recent months.

This year will be the organization's first full back-to-school season but Ahmed says the organization plans to increase options for school-aged youth when possible. 

“That’s sort of been a little bit heartbreaking because you never want to see anyone go hungry, especially our young folks, but at the same time it means that perhaps there's a gap in our food aid or social services that isn't reaching our young population,” said Ahmed. “If you're young…it might be really hard to request like a hamper or travel to the food bank and access something like that so you might depend on informal services such as the fridge where you can stop by anytime when it works for you.”

According to the 2021 food insecurity study, federal and provincial child benefit programs have a positive impact on food insecurity among families. An analysis of the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), a federal income supplement program to support households with children under 18, found that the CCB reduced the likelihood of severe food insecurity among low-income households with children. However, the prevalence of overall food insecurity remained unchanged.

“Our community is still very much so struggling even if you might not be witnessing it when you're entrenched in your day-to-day routine,” said Ahmed. “But folks should know that they do very much so exist…So we just invite people to participate with the fridge in ways that make sense for them.”