Health Unit dashboard spotlights urgent need to address food insecurity

Image provided by Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit

By Cecilia Nasmith

Northumberland County

The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit has launched a new Food Insecurity Dashboard, painting a picture of local families struggling to afford healthy food throughout the region with infographics that shed light on the struggles that result from low incomes and insufficient social assistance.

The Food Insecurity Dashboard allows users to explore the data interactively, comparing household income scenarios, annual trends and regional variations, with infographics tailored to each member county illustrating the precarious financial situations faced by food-insecure households an the difficult choices they must make to keep their families housed, fed, clothed and warm.

According to the data, a family with two adults and two children would have spent an average $1,237 monthly towards healthy eating in 2024.

“Minimum wage and social assistance rates are just not keeping up with the significant rising costs of basic necessities like food, housing and utilities,” Registered Dietitian and Health Equity Co-ordinator Sarah Tsang declared in the announcement.

“Food insecurity is not a matter of diet – it is a serious public health issue that leads to long-term physical and mental-health challenges.”

The Food Insecurity Dashboard clearly demonstrates a growing gap between income and the cost of basic needs. For example, if that family of four has one minimum-wage earner, they would spend more than 90% of their income on rent and food.

The picture is even more dire for families and individuals reliant on social assistance. In Northumberland County, that family of four would need an additional $1,356 every month just to cover its rent and food.

The consequences of food insecurity include an increased risk of such chronic conditions as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression. It also makes managing existing health issues more difficult, increasing the strain on health-are resources.

Tsang urges a focus on long-term solutions, “particularly poverty reduction, ensuring adequate affordable housing and providing incomes that better reflect the true cost of living.”

The health unit is advocating for a number of measures to address the situation, including increases to social assistance to match the real costs of living (and indexed to inflation), implementing a basic-income guarantee, improving employment standards to reduce unstable work conditions and continuing efforts to expand affordable and adequate housing options.

Visit the Food Insecurity Dashboard at hkpr.on.ca/FoodInsecurity to learn more about the impacts, solutions and local supports available.