Food Security Action Committee
This Action Committee is committed to advocating for access and choice around adequate, healthy, sustainably-produced food.
Current Activities
- Decrease the cost to purchase food
- ‘Scale up’ existing food, garden, and financial literary education programs to reach more people
- Decrease the barrier-to-entry cost of gardening
- Spread awareness of food insecurity
- Spread awareness of where food comes from
- Enhance existing food charity services
FAQ
What is Food Security?
- When all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. (1)
What is Food Insecurity?
- The inability to acquire or consume an adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so. (2)
Why is Food Security important for poverty reduction?
- It can be hard to concentrate and make choices about other things when one is hungry. It can affect education, job security, health, mental well-being and financial security.
- People experiencing poverty often have to make choices between paying rent or buying food. Having affordable food enables them to use money for other areas.
- If you can’t afford healthy food it limits options then you opt for choices that are often less nutritious. This affects people’s health, and ability to learn and function.
Join our Committee!
The Food Security Action Committee meets monthly and is always looking for interested people to join our group. If you are interested in joining or are looking for more information, please email lori.jack(at)caunitedway.ca.
References:
- Trade, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy and Health: Glossary of globalization, trade and health terms [Internet]. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2015 [cited 2015 Dec 30]. Available from: http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story028/en/
- Davis B, Tarasuk V (1994). Hunger in Canada. Agriculture and Human Values 11(4):50-57.
