Characterization of household food insecurity in Québec: food and feelings
Introduction
The right to food is one of the most basic human rights (Anon, 1948). Yet it is often compromised even in North America, and the Province of Québec, Canada, is no exception. Though no direct measure of household food insecurity exists in Québec, many studies allude to its existence and raise the issue of its apparent chronicity in an environment where food is widely available (Institut de la statistique du Québec, 2000; Jacobs Starkey, Kuhnlein, & Gray-Donald, 1998; Montreal Harvest, 1996; Rouffignat, Racine, & Côté, 1996). Following a line of inquiry developed at Cornell University (Radimer, Olson, Greene, Campbell, & Habicht, 1992), the purpose of this study was to understand how household food insecurity manifests itself, from the perspective of people in low-income households who had experienced it in a broad range of situations. It is part of a wider study on the nature of the experience in Québec as well as its contributing factors, the aim of which is to be able, eventually, to measure the phenomenon directly and work towards its prevention.
According to the definition offered by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences: “food insecurity exists whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain”. Food security implies that all people, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life “without resorting, e.g. to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing and other coping strategies” (Anderson, 1990). In 1996, a broad consensus was reached around a similar definition at the World Food Summit: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (Anon, 1998).
Section snippets
Population and sample
Details of the methods are presented elsewhere (Hamelin, Beaudry, & Habicht, 1998). Essentially, a purposive and progressive sample using pre-defined criteria was used in a population of French-speaking single- and two-parent households from urban and rural areas in and around Québec City. The sample was restricted to those with a basic income equal to or lower than 130% of low-income cut-offs as established by Statistics Canada (1996), having dependent children and where age of the respondent
Results
The majority of the 98 respondents were women (85%) and nearly half were single parent households (48%), lived in an urban area (50%), were tenants (48%) and had less than grade 10 education (43%). Over 60% had a household income at or below 70% of the low-income cut-offs (67%), were unemployed (62%) and had resorted to food aid in the past year (65%). Seventy-seven (79%) were found to be food insecure by the criterion measure and 79 (81%) by the Radimer/Cornell Measure (κ 0.88).
The content
Discussion
In this paper, we documented both people's expectations regarding sufficiency of food (summarized in Table 1) and manifestations of household food insecurity (summarized in Table 4). To our knowledge, this is the first time that people's expectations have been described. They are definitely reasonable by any standard. Their elements can be grouped into those of a more quantitative nature related to consumption for survival, those of a more qualitative nature related to adequacy for self-respect
Author's note
The research reported here formed a part of A.-M. Hamelin's doctoral thesis submitted to Université Laval in December 1999, funded by the Fondation de l’Université Laval and supervised by M. Beaudry and J.P. Habicht.
References (29)
Food insecurityA nutritional outcome or a predictor variable?
Journal of Nutrition
(1991)- et al.
A model and research approach for studying the management of limited food resources by low income families
Journal of Nutrition Education
(1989) - et al.
Food bank use among low-income households in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Journal of Nutrition Education
(1998) - et al.
Questionnaire-based measures are valid for the identification of rural households with hunger and food insecurity
Journal of Nutrition
(1997) - et al.
Validation of the Radimer/Cornell hunger and food insecurity measures
Journal of Nutrition
(1995) The social organization of nutritional inequities
Social Science and Medicine
(1996)Core indicators of nutritional state for difficult-to sample populations
Journal of Nutrition
(1990)- Anon. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 25. In: The encyclopaedia of the United Nations and...
- Anon. (1998). Canada's action plan for food security: A response to the world food summit. Agriculture and Agri-Food...
- ATLAS/ti. (1994). Computer aid text interpretation and theory building user's guide. Release 1.1E (2nd ed.). Berlin:...
Hunger and public action
Hunger, malnutrition and poverty in the contemporary U.SSome observations on their social and cultural context
Food and Foodways
La vulnérabilité des ménages à l’insécurité alimentaire
Canadian Journal of Development Studies
Cited by (304)
The British Columbia Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program Reduces Short-Term Household Food Insecurity Among Adults With Low Incomes: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial
2024, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsHow do Latina/o Parents Interpret and Respond to the US Household Food Security Survey Module? A Qualitative Cognitive Interviewing Study
2023, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsThe Exposome and Cardiovascular Health
2023, Canadian Journal of CardiologyFood Insecurity in Israeli Elderly is Associated with Sociodemographic Characteristics, Disability, and Depression: Policy Implications
2023, Current Developments in Nutrition