Nutritious diet cost soars
Ottawa sees 10-per-cent jump in food prices, and ‘you know it’s going to hurt people who are already living hand-to-mouth’
The cost of a nutritious diet in Ottawa jumped by a stunning 10 per cent over the past year — about five times the rate of inflation and the largest increase in at least a decade.
According to Ottawa Public Health’s annual Nutritious Food Basket Survey, released Wednesday, it now costs a minimum of $869 every month to adequately feed a family of four in Ottawa. That’s an increase of $80 a month since 2013.
To calculate that figure, Ottawa Public Health visited 10 grocery stores across the city and priced 67 standard food items that reflect a healthy diet, based on Canada’s Food Guide.
Sherry Nigro, the Ottawa Public Health official who released the survey results, said “my heart kind of sunk” when she saw how much food costs have risen.
“We know that the cost of living is going up, but a 10-per-cent jump, that was really disheartening,” she said. “You know it’s going to hurt people who are already living hand-to-mouth.
“Many, many people in Ottawa are struggling to make ends meet. Where can you squeeze? You squeeze by eating less. You squeeze by going to a food bank.”
Marco Pagani, president and chief executive of the Community Foundation of Ottawa, said the survey findings “confirm our worst fears. I think it paints a very bleak picture of the situation here in Ottawa.”
They also confirm the foundation’s decision to make alleviating food insecurity a top priority, Pagani said. “If there was ever a time when our community needed to pay attention to this issue, it’s certainly now.”
The cost of a nutritious diet has been steadily rising for years, but at a slower rate. In 2013, for example, the cost rose by 6 per cent.
Nigro said Ottawa Public Health doesn’t know why the increase in the past year was so large. “We haven’t done that analysis. We’ll try to understand that a little bit more.”
Over the next month, she said, Ottawa Public Health will compare the increase in Ottawa with the results provincewide to see whether the large increase here was unusual.
An estimated 75,000 people in Ottawa — about 8 per cent of the population — have trouble affording or accessing healthy food. That number is likely to rise, Nigro said.
“I don’t think people’s incomes have gone up proportionately, so I would expect that this is going to create a lot of pressure for people on fixed incomes.”
Ottawa Public Health figures show that families of four and sin- gle men on welfare now don’t have enough money to pay for housing and food, let alone other necessities such as transportation, clothing, medical and dental costs and telephone.
“They’re in a deficit before they start to eat, pretty much,” Nigro said. The latest figures are a “call to action,” she said. “This has implications for us as human beings in trying to reach out and create that safety net for others who might be struggling.”
It also has implications for school boards that run breakfast programs and charitable funders. “Maybe this becomes a bit more of a priority about where you put some of your dollars.”