CMAJ • March 11, 2008; 178 (6). doi:10.1503/cmaj.1080009.
© 2008 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.
Lynn McIntyre, MD MHSc* and
Suzanne Galesloot, RD MSA
© 2008 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.
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Hunger in Canada
*Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary; Nutrition Specialist, Food Security, Healthy Living, Calgary Health Region, Calgary, Alta.
Gerard Kennedy's heartfelt editorial on hunger in Canada reminded CMAJ readers during the holiday season of the social suffering of others.1 However, Kennedy's analysis failed to accurately position hunger, particularly child hunger, within the context of food insecurity (briefly defined as lack of access to adequate, nutritious food through socially acceptable means2) in Canada.
When the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey was conducted it was the first time that an internationally validated instrument was used to measure the epidemiology of food insecurity in the Canadian population.3 The survey found that 9.2% of households (1.1 million) experienced income-related household food insecurity. Children are regularly spared food deprivation in food-insecure households2,4 and this was reflected in the fact that 5.2% of children experienced food insecurity whereas 9.0% of adults did.3 The percentage of children who actually experience hunger is small: 1–2%5 or 0.4%.3 In contrast, 2.9% of adults in the Canadian Community Health Survey were severely food insecure or hungry.3
Between one-fifth and one-third of people reporting food insecurity seek assistance from a food bank.5,6 Lone mothers are most likely to seek such assistance,5 which probably accounts for the high percentage of children who are deemed to be recipients of food from food banks.1 Although absolutely no child in Canada should experience hunger, food insecurity in Canada is not synonymous with food bank counts.
We support Kennedy's recommendations to address food insecurity in Canada and his call for physicians to advocate for social justice measures that eliminate the abject poverty that results in severe food insecurity. However, a discussion of hunger that focuses on the needs of children while ignoring the needs of adults and that defines child hunger solely on the basis of the counts of children who are food bank users does not reflect the true number or make-up of Canadians who are food insecure and can unintentionally perpetuate the myth of parental neglect of poor children.
Footnotes
Competing interests: None declared.
REFERENCES
- Kennedy G. Food for all. CMAJ 2007;177:1473.
[Free Full Text] - McIntyre L, Glanville NT, Raine KD, et al. Do low-income lone mothers compromise their nutrition to feed their children? CMAJ 2003;168:686-91.
[Abstract/Free Full Text] - Health Canada. Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 2.2, Nutrition (2004). Income-related household food security in Canada. Ottawa: Health Canada; 2007.
- Tarasuk V, Maclean H. The food problems of low-income single mothers: an ethnographic study. Can Home Econ J 1990;40:76-82.
- McIntyre L, Connor SK, Warren J. Child hunger in Canada: results of the 1994 National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. CMAJ 2000;163:961-5.
[Abstract/Free Full Text] - Che J, Chen J. Food insecurity in Canadian households. Health Rep 2001;12:11-22. [Medline]
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