Assessing the relevance of neighbourhood characteristics to the household food security of low-income Toronto families

Abstract

Objective: Although the sociodemographic characteristics of food-insecure households have been well documented, there has been little examination of neighbourhood characteristics in relation to this problem. In the present study we examined the association between household food security and neighbourhood features including geographic food access and perceived neighbourhood social capital. Design: Cross-sectional survey and mapping of discount supermarkets and community food programmes. Setting: Twelve high-poverty neighbourhoods in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Subjects: Respondents from 484 low-income families who had children and who lived in rental accommodations. Results: Food insecurity was pervasive, affecting two-thirds of families with about a quarter categorized as severely food insecure, indicative of food deprivation. Food insecurity was associated with household factors including income and income source. However, food security did not appear to be mitigated by proximity to food retail or community food programmes, and high rates of food insecurity were observed in neighbourhoods with good geographic food access. While low perceived neighbourhood social capital was associated with higher odds of food insecurity, this effect did not persist once we accounted for household sociodemographic factors. Conclusions: Our findings raise questions about the extent to which neighbourhood-level interventions to improve factors such as food access or social cohesion can mitigate problems of food insecurity that are rooted in resource constraints. In contrast, the results reinforce the importance of household-level characteristics and highlight the need for interventions to address the financial constraints that underlie problems of food insecurity.

Food Insecurity, Neighborhood Food Access, and Food Assistance in Philadelphia

“…A study employing survey and mapping data in a low-income population of residents of Toronto, Canada, found that proximity to a local food outlet did not reduce the risk of household food insecurity and there was no association between a respondent's perception of adequate food access and the respondent's food security status. 23 Our study's contrasting findings may be attributable to differences between Philadelphia and Toronto, and between Canadian and US food prices and social policies affecting low-income families. One potential explanation for the relationship between access and food insecurity we found is that lack of neighborhood food access increases the costs of food shopping requiring funds and time for transportation, thereby increasing the risk of food insecurity.…”

Place and food insecurity: a critical review and synthesis of the literature

“…In terms of characteristics of the target populations studied, seven of the eighteen studies examined adults of varying ages (37)(38)(39)(43)(44)(45)(46) , seven explicitly examined families with children (sometimes with data collected using the child as the sampling unit) (40,42,(47)(48)(49)(50)(51) , three focused on seniors (41,52,53) , and one sampled a range of ages (children and adults) (54) . Seven out of the eighteen studies (39 %) focused exclusively on low-income or ethnic subgroups (39,44,46,(48)(49)(50)(51) .…”

“…Seven out of the eighteen studies (39 %) focused exclusively on low-income or ethnic subgroups (39,44,46,(48)(49)(50)(51) .…”

“…The three Australian studies (45,52,54) and Dean and Sharkey (2011) (43) adapted and used items from the Radimer/Cornell measure, while Sharkey et al (2011) used an adapted version of the complete Radimer/Cornell measure (49) . Eight studies investigated different types or degrees of severity of food insecurity, by using either more than one questionnaire item or different thresholds for the USDA eighteen-item Food Security Scale or the Radimer/Cornell Scale (41,(43)(44)(45)(48)(49)(50)(51) .…”

“…In a low-income population, Kirkpatrick and Tarasuk (2010) investigated the association between food insecurity and living within 2 km of a number of food resources, including discount supermarkets, food banks, community kitchens and community gardens (48) . No significant associations emerged, even after considering severe food insecurity, or when using continuous distances or a shorter cut-off (1 km or less).…”