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Click on each question to check your answer.
Test Your Knowledge
1. What are some emotional elements of food insecurity?
Emotional elements of food insecurity include a preoccupation with food, monotony, feelings of deprivation, and ongoing worry about food insecurity.
2. In what ways do guaranteed income programs help save money for the government?
Money is saved when fewer people are ill, fewer crimes are committed, and more people seek higher education and remain employed.
3. Which factors increase the odds of a Canadian child experiencing severe food insecurity?
- Single-parent led household
- Higher than average number of siblings
- Low parental education
- Low household income
- Main source of income from social assistance
4. Fill in the blank: One study that interviewed women experiencing food insecurity found that respondents listed the following coping strategies: ________.
- Skipping meals
- Delaying payment of bills
- Seeking financial help from friends and family
5. Why is it getting harder for Indigenous Peoples to get and eat country food?
Barriers include the cost of hunting and fishing, increasing contaminants in country food, declining skills, and the changing climate.
6. How do the health problems and relative unemployment resulting from food insecurity harm everyone in a society?
Social services are expensive, sick people put pressure on the healthcare system, and sick people are more likely to be absent from work (i.e., not contributing to the productivity of the community).
7. What are some social effects of food deprivation?
- Elderly and chronically ill people are more likely to die prematurely
- Children do not learn as well
- Disruption of family rituals such as regular mealtimes
- Erosion of social cohesion
8. List the key points of each population group as highlighted in the chapter.
|
Population Group |
Key Points (barriers, issues, and health outcomes related to food insecurity) |
|
Low-income Canadians |
A lack of social assistance prevents people from securing employment. The presence of multiple expenses reduces the amount of income used to purchase food. Food is only one of the many costs of living. |
|
Seniors |
Canadian pension and Old Age Security are insufficient for buying nutritious food. More prone to health complications that may require specialized diets. |
|
Young Canadians |
Health consequences related to food insecurity include depression, suicidal tendencies, poor academic performance, cognitive delays, negative effects on psychosocial development, obesity, and asthma. |
|
Parents |
Often skip meals to feed children, compromise quality and variety of foods, “stretch out” foods, and rely on family and friends for assistance. More likely to use internal, home-based coping strategies rather than external coping strategies due to shame. |
|
Indigenous Peoples in Canada |
Experience difficulty in obtaining country food because of increased cost of hunting, climate change, more contaminants, and shifts in cultural practices. Replacement of country food with unhealthy processed food. |
Questions for Critical Thought
1. From a nutritional standpoint, do you think the rate of social assistance should be increased or decreased? Explain why.
This question asks you to provide an evaluative argument in support of or against a government program. Answers should include some variation of the definition of social assistance as “income support programs administered by the government and intended to help recipients cover the cost of food, shelter, clothing, and other daily necessities.” Arguments for increasing the rate of social assistance could mention how the current rate is insufficient for covering basic living costs, citing how many recipients of social support continue to access food banks due to food insecurity. People are unlikely to have the resources to seek out jobs when they are unable to fulfill their basic needs. Arguments against increasing the rate of social assistance could cite how its function is to encourage people to find work. If the given amount exceeds earnings from a minimum wage job, it could disincentivize recipients from seeking employment.
2. Has increased food insecurity changed cultural and religious traditions associated with food and food rituals in Canada? Provide examples.
A discussion of how food insecurity has changed traditional cultural practices of Indigenous Peoples is preferable here. The monetary costs of hunting, the environmental contamination of food sources, and the changing climate have made hunting and gathering traditions more difficult and, therefore, increased food insecurity. As a result, many Indigenous Peoples have ceased their traditional methods of food acquisition and shifted to a reliance on processed and less nutritious foods.
3. What are some reasons that explain why the prices of healthy foods are increasing while the prices of unhealthy foods remain cheap? Should efforts be taken to make healthier alternatives more affordable?
The chapter does not directly explain the phenomenon at hand. You should assess this question using your own knowledge, supported by inferences drawn from the text. What costs might be associated with healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, that are not as important for unhealthy foods, like canned goods? Consider factors such as shelf-life, transport, packaging, and production. How might scarcity impact food prices? For example, the changing climate might make it more difficult to grow nutritious foods. The resulting scarcity of such foods, coupled with rising demand, might drive up their prices. What cultural trends are shaping food prices? Could an increasing demand for organic and sustainably-sourced foods make them more expensive than processed foods, which tend to be unhealthier? These are some potential questions to guide you in developing your own answer. In answering the second part of this question, you can consider the benefits and costs of making healthy alternatives more affordable. Some benefits include increased health and equality. Some costs include market interference and feasibility.
4. What are some problems that need to be addressed to equalize access to nutritious foods? Brainstorm ideas that extend beyond the realm of food.
You can consider how various groups of people experience unequal access to nutritious food in different ways. The problems faced by seniors differ from those faced by youth; therefore, their solutions will differ as well. Some overarching problems that affect food inequality are climate change, pathologizing ideologies like blaming the poor, and forms of environmental racism such as food deserts. Some more local problems include transport and city planning, big-chain monopolies, and food availability. In thinking outside of the realm of food, you can consider how global and historical forces create and enforce inequality, and how societal structures distribute access unevenly along lines of race, class, and gender.
5. Why should hunger be addressed as a social problem?
In positioning hunger as a social problem, you can consider both the social causes of hunger and the social effects of hunger. One potential approach is to consider how different theorists contextualize hunger. Functionalists focus on the social utility of hunger as both a form of population control and a way to incentivize hard work. Conflict theorists view hunger as a detrimental effect of capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth. When hunger is considered within its social context, its solutions involve distinctly social components, such as intervening in an uneven global market dominated by multinational corporations. The key point here is that hunger does not exist in a vacuum; hunger is informed by the societal context it exists within and, therefore, should be addressed with this context in mind.