Afford ability of a Nutritious Diet for Income Assistance Recipients in Nova Scotia (2002–2010)

Abstract

hose affected by food insecurity in Canada are disproportionately represented by low-income individuals and families. [1][2][3] According to the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), 7.7% of households in Canada reported experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity in 2007/08. Approximately one third (32.5%) of households with incomes in the lowest income decile were food insecure. 3 These statistics raise particular public health concerns given the negative and interrelated impacts of food insecurity on many aspects of health, including child development, social inclusion and chronic illness. 4,5 Nova Scotia (NS) has consistently reported rates of food insecurity that are higher than the national average. 1,3 In 2007/08, 9.3% of Nova Scotians reported moderate or severe income-related food insecurity. 3 Rates of food insecurity among households relying on government social assistance programs are alarmingly high, and the inadequacy of such provincial programs in Canada has been consistently demonstrated in grey 6-9 and published literature. [10][11][12] At least 63.7% of food-insecure Nova Scotians named Income Assistance* (IA) (also referred to as "social assistance", "income support" and "welfare") as their main source of income in 2007/08 13 and 4.7% of all citizens in NS reported accessing IA in 2008 (J. Rathbun, December 2, 2011, personal communication). In addition, in 2010 about 50% of Nova Scotians accessing food banks were IA recipients. 14 Food costing has commonly been used to monitor the risk of food insecurity and identify vulnerable population groups. 15 Food

Interventions to address household food insecurity in high-income countries

“…Over a 30 d period, experiences of hunger were reported by 57 % of participants, even in the context of food bank use. So while in some studies respondents have emphasised that the food provided to them from food banks is an important supplement to otherwise depleted or non-existent food supplies ( 5 , 110 – 112 ) , the amount and regularity of help provided from food banks may be insufficient to ensure that households do not go without food.…”

Neoliberalism and Health: The Linkages and the Dangers

“…They are questions of individual lifestyle – obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, diabetes, sexually transmitted disease … These are not epidemics in the epidemiological sense – they are the result of millions of individual decisions, at millions of points in time’ (‘Blair calls’ ). The resulting ‘lifestyle drift’ in health promotion (Popay, Whitehead, and Hunter ) has pernicious implications when it ignores such factors as the simple unaffordability or inaccessibility of healthy diets for those on low incomes (Barosh, Friel, Engelhardt, and Chan ; Breyer and Voss‐Andreae ; Drewnowski, Monsivais, Maillot, and Darmon ; Jones, Conklin, Suhrcke, and Monsivais ; Loopstra et al 2015; Loopstra, Reeves, and Stuckler 2015; McIntyre, Bartoo, and Emery ; Monsivais and Drewnowski ; Perry, Williams, Sefton, and Haddad ; Williams et al ), diverting attention from aspects of social position that make it far more difficult for some people to lead healthy lives than for others, even given best intentions and perfect knowledge. As it applies not only to health but also to social policy, this individualisation represents an especially destructive manifestation of the ideological dimension of neoliberalism as it colonises professional routines and policy vocabularies.…”

Do low‐income Cypriots experience food stress? The cost of a healthy food basket relative to guaranteed minimum income in Nicosia, Cyprus

“…Worldwide findings from previous studies show that there is a greater incidence of food stress among low‐income families compared to families on higher incomes . A survey in 13 developing countries demonstrated that middle‐class households may spend 35–65% of their gross income on food .…”

“…Worldwide findings from previous studies show that there is a greater incidence of food stress among lowincome families compared to families on higher incomes. 2,12,24,[32][33][34] A survey in 13 developing countries Figure 1 The cost of the food items in the healthy food basket by household type, monthly amounts in euro, March 2015. , women; , man; , couple; , woman + two children; , man + two children; , couple + two children. demonstrated that middle-class households may spend 35-65% of their gross income on food.…”