With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, food insecurity has hit an all time high with Statistics Canada reporting that 14.6 per cent of Canadians have experienced food insecurity during the pandemic.

By Allissa Hibbs 

Beyond the strain on public health and safety, the COVID-19 pandemic has also increased food insecurity in several communities with Statistics Canada reporting that 14.6 per cent of Canadians have experienced food insecurity during COVID-19.

Food insecurity has been an issue amongst low income and marginalized communities prior to COVID-19 with Statistic Canada’s 2017/2018 surveys on food insecurity reporting a food insecurity rate of 10.5%. Though, with COVID-19 cases surging amidst the second-wave, Feed Ontario reports that food banks are now struggling to keep up with demand. 

“COVID-19 has increased challenges for food banks, making it harder to acquire food locally and reducing the number of volunteers able to safely help distribute food,” wrote Carolyn Stewart, Executive Director of Feed Ontario in the launch of their COVID-19 Emergency Food Box Program which hopes to “address local level labour shortages, support physical distancing measures, and meet the surge in demand by helping to address food shortages.” 

Those depending on local food banks as a food source face a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 as food banks typically “provide three days’ worth of food” which can require “additional trips” to acquire essentials despite public health guidance warning against this additional travel, according to Daily Bread Food Bank’s newest report Hunger Lives Here.

There are many other factors challenging food security, including Canada’s ongoing homelessness and affordable housing crisis. Currently, the policy stands in the way of thousands of Canadians securing basic needs like shelter which entwines into the food security crisis. 

“Food insecurity has everything to do with help reparation and the lack of housing,” says Dr. Roberta Timothy during a Food Justice in a time of COVID-19 event held by Ryerson University during its 10th annual Social Justice Week.

“Depriving homeless people of the ability to provide themselves with safe, warm, dry shelter … exposes the applicants and other homeless individuals to additional health and safety risks,” said a group of homeless people and activist organizations to CBC News in early July.

Recently in the City of Toronto, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down a motion to temporarily suspend enforcement of a bylaw that prevents individuals from pitching tents in public parks. The bylaw states that, “Unless authorized by permit, no person shall place, install, attach or erect a temporary or permanent tent, structure or shelter at, in or to a park.”

Homeless individuals and advocates in Toronto have been fighting against this decision, especially since Toronto allows for restaurant owners to expand patios and install canopies and tents for outdoor dining.

“The government is not doing enough to address the food crisis, we have enough food in this country but the government is purposely hoarding food and creating deprivation for the Black communities’ members,” said Timothy who emphasized how much leftover food from restaurants and grocery stores is thrown out and on how colonized urban planning can cause food disparities to occur due to food sources not being evenly distributed.

“The community I grew up in had more McDonalds, more Wendys, and more fast-food restaurants, there was not a fresh food option or a local community butcher. My Mother had to go far to find these options but we didn’t even have the means to do that. I grew up in a neighborhood that didn’t even have grass to grow gardens,” said Timothy. 

The fight for food justice did not emerge during the global pandemic, as noted in the colonialism roots of food insecurity, but it has been exacerbated as urgency mounts to address the growing food insecurity that is occurring in many communities, “We have to demand and fight for a better response” said Timothy.

For those who are looking to contribute can consider donating to charities like Daily Bread Food Bank and Feed Ontario in their fight for food justice and in recognizing food as a basic human right.