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Overwhelming majority of Canadians think no progress is being made on food insecurity

Jul 10, 2017 | 6:02 PM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB —A recent report suggests an overwhelming majority of Canadians don’t think enough is being done about food insecurity in our country.

Conducted by Ipsos and commissioned by Community Food Centres Canada, the poll reveals 9 out of 10 people see no progress on the issue being made.

According to an ongoing research project out of the University of Toronto there are four million Canadians who are food insecure, which means they struggle to afford the food they need.

In 2015-16 over 3,600 people used the Medicine Hat & District Food Bank for the first time ever, but research shows less than one-quarter of food insecure households make use of food banks.

“Food insecurity in Medicine Hat has been an ongoing issue and continues to be,” says Jaime Rogers, department manager of homelessness and housing with the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society.

Rogers and her organization are currently working on a poverty reduction strategy for the city after the great success they’ve had with ending homelessness. She says food insecurity and poverty are closely linked.

“The food security can’t be done in isolation of housing, of transportation, of creating meaningful daily activity for people, increasing income,” said Rogers. “I think that’s different from Medicine Hat’s approach, we don’t silo the initiatives.”

One of the biggest new initiatives underway in our community to tackle food insecurity is the concept of a community garden, where anyone can harvest fruits or vegetables and take them home.

Thanks to a number of groups in the city the food bank here opened their flagship community garden beside their building last summer. It has a variety of fruits and vegetables that people can grab free of charge anytime they please.

The city has taken a shine to the idea, and set aside some land for other community gardens says Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston.

“In some ways the past becomes the future again, when I was growing up everybody had a garden,” said Clugston in his office Monday. “Somehow we move away from these things and then realize maybe people knew something a hundred, two hundred thousand years ago, and get back to basics.”

Since building their first community garden the food bank has built two more in the city, and officials say they have plans to build additional ones in the future.