Food Insecurities In Canada

The approach to building food security is greatly influenced by where you live. Food insecurities in non-urban regions of Canada is a major challenge. The native origin population comprises 3/4th of the total population in non-urban region. The non- urban food sources comprise of 1) Country sourced 2) External sourced. The country sourced food have scanty availability. 23 It is of a particular problem for those individuals living in Non-urban areas. 23 The accessibility to country food become a problem if there are no active hunter in the household, limited access to food sharing network and for those who lives below poverty line. 23 Other problem with Non-urban food utilization is that of traditional food practices. 7 Traditional food practices
Lack of transportation facilities:
Non-Urban areas primarily relay on cars for accessing market food supplies. Public transport is crippled in such regions. This has added burden on financial condition because of added cost of gas and vehicle maintenance. The women and children of the region are in particular affected. For example, if the car breaks down there will be additional financial burden to get it repaired. Also, with lack of availability for vehicle repair shops it becomes increasingly difficult to repair the vehicle and access food.24
Limited local employment opportunities:
The unemployment and poverty rates are twice as high among Indigenous peoples than non-Indigenous peoples.22,25 With smaller community the availability of employment is another challenge. For higher financial stability they have to make a tougher choice of working outside the rural area.24 It is a particular problem for a household with children. The overall income left after spending for transportation and day care is very low. The left over income is seldom useful to buy basic necessities. This makes majority of the population to leave their jobs and depend on social benefits.24 Available social benefits are often insufficient to provide food security in a high –cost rural market
With higher government funding to other aspects of national growth, local governments are becoming responsible for more services with decreasing budgets. Service cuts and budget constraints at the municipal government and health authority level can also affect volunteer capacity. This clubbed with limited market dynamicity in rural market leads to decrease market sustainability.
Other important association is that of social benefits dependency. It is evident that non-urban communities are mainly dependent on social benefits for there daily living. The situation can be blamed to conditions like low employment opportunity, poor education and lack of transport facilities. This has forced the individuals to seek social benefits. From the prevalence study it is clear that food insecurities are maximum among those relying on the social benefits. Social benefits are often insufficient in providing basic necessities for