Food insecurity a serious issue in the Okanagan
You are what you eat, the saying goes. And eating a healthy diet is unaffordable for many low-income families and individuals in B.C., says a new report by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
And in the Okanagan, food insecurity, or lack of access to healthy food, is a serious public health issue, said Dr. Fatemeh Sabet, medical officer of health for the Interior Health Authority.
“Healthy eating is a very important determinant of peoples’ health, and so it is very important for people to have access to nutritious food,” she said. “This report shows it’s increasingly out of reach for families and individuals, especially low-income families and individuals, so this makes it a very important public health issue.”
The report, called Food Costing in B.C. 2022, indicates that about four per cent of people in B.C. experience severe food insecurity, which means missing meals, eating less or not eating for a day or more at a time.
Almost 15 per cent of people in B.C. find it difficult to put food on the table. Across the province, that’s 732,000 people. One in seven B.C. households experience food insecurity, and one in six B.C. children live in a house that experiences it.
The impact of food insecurity on health is significant, and Sabet said it’s widespread across the health authority.
“Our health care providers do see the impacts of food insecurity. Evidence shows that people who experience food insecurity use the health system at double the rate needed for health care than the general public,” she said. “It increases peoples’ need to seek medical attention and the frequency they need to do so.”
Babies, children and youth may have increased risk of anemia, lower nutrient intake, asthma and hospitalization as well as have poorer academic outcomes and social skills.
Adults living in food insecure households report higher rates of chronic disease including diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. It can also lead to symptoms of anxiety, sleep disturbance, social isolation and depression, the report says.
The average monthly cost of the nutritious food basket for a reference family of four in the Okanagan health service delivery area was $1,294 in May and June 2022, according to the report, higher than the B.C. average of $1,263.
Because the report’s methodology has changed, those figures can’t be compared to previous years, but the reports notes that even these estimates are likely now too low given how much the cost of groceries have risen in the past year.
The report analyzes five different household compositions and income scenarios to show that once families or individuals with low incomes have paid for rental housing and food, there’s little to no money left for other necessities and living costs.
“The scenarios show that after subtraction of housing and food costs, there’s very little left over for anything else, so it’s low-income families and individuals and those who are on income and disability assistance that are most impacted and are suffering the most,” Sabet said.
The report says addressing household food insecurity requires policy action to increase incomes.
It’s a difficult problem that needs to be tackled from many different angles, Sabet said.
“The main actions to be taken are at the policy level, to make sure that people have better incomes so that everyone can afford to eat a nutritious diet that supports health and overall wellbeing. The equity lens needs to be incorporated into the work so that the people most in need should be the people that are prioritized,” said Sabet. “We need a multi-disciplinary approach.”
Food costing in B.C. uses a survey tool known as the national nutritious food basket to assess the cost of 61 food items at grocery stores in different parts of the province.
Sabet said limitations in the way data are collected for the report means that remote and First Nations communities are not included in the analysis.
A follow-up report is in progress that will provide a better lens into food insecurity in those communities, she said.