A place at the table

Food Security. Food Insecurity. Either way you chop and sauté it, many people do not have access to healthy, nutritious food. And I’m not talking about people who live elsewhere. I’m talking about people who live in the County. Proof that food insecurity exists in our community is that we have two food banks in the County. However, having access to a food bank only ensures food security if the food bank is a part of a sustainable food system. Food banks, generally speaking, should be looked upon as an emergency stopgap for folks with too much month left at the end of a too little food budget.

you know I’ll make a story of it. When LOML and I were much, much younger—before arriving in the County—we lived in Toronto. He was a full-time student who worked parttime. I was a part-time student who worked full-time. At the time, we could barely pay our rent, buy our books and pay our tuition, never mind have enough money left over to purchase healthy food to make it through the week. Our food security came to us through our families. They lived close by, and while they didn’t always agree with our spending money on rent, books and tuition, they did understand the need for good food, and provided meals on weekends when we really felt the pinch. There was never a question about where LOML and I would eat on Saturday or Sunday. We always dropped by my parents’ home on Saturday and his parents’ home on Sunday and we brought our laundry with us. There was never a question about who got to take leftovers home for lunches on Mondays and Tuesdays. When our parents visited our home, they were armed with extras that just happened to fall into their grocery baskets during their weekly forays to Loblaws or Dominion or St. Lawrence Market. We never turned our noses up at a loaf of bread, a can of salmon, fresh produce or a dozen eggs. Family was our security—for laundry and for food. It’s not that simple for others.

The truth of the matter is, food insecurity isn’t a problem just for students. It’s a problem for people with lower incomes. It isn’t just a problem for people in other countries. It’s a problem for people who do not have adequate means of transportation to get to the sources of fresh, locally grown food. It’s a problem for people who do not know how to prepare nutritious food. It’s a problem for people who have never been taught to cook, preserve, buy seasonally and store food. It’s a problem for people who do not have the facilities to prepare fresh, nutritious food. For those of us who don’t have to endure food insecurity, we might scoff at the folks whose grocery carts are filled with frozen pizzas, sugared cereals, cheap white bread, chocolate milk, hot dogs and fruit-like drinks. With limited funds, a poor understanding of nutrition and transportation issues, many County families are forced to make food decisions that fit their lifestyles. This often translates into cheap, quick, bellyfilling foods with a long shelf life, which are available within walking distance.

In the late 1990s, the World Food Summit concluded, “Food security is built on three pillars. Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis. Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet. Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation.” Global or local, food security is a problem every community needs to assess and address. On March 4 from noon to 3 p.m., consider attending the “Meal or No Meal” session at the Bloomfield town hall to learn a bit about food insecurity and what might be done at a community level.a

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca