FOOD BANKS AND FOOD INSECURITY: REFLECTION ON ARTICLE
Food Banks and Food Insecurity: Reflection on Article
The article entitled, ‘The relationship between food banks and household food insecurity among low-income Toronto families’ authored by Loopstra & Tarasuk (2012) is informative in the context of issues related to utilization food banks in Canada. They collected primary data in this quantitative and qualitative research and highlighted the barriers and hindrances prevailing in the utilization of food banks. Subsequently, the article reveals the basic underlying causes faced by the families relying on food banks to fight against poverty and scarcity of food. I agree with most of the findings pointed out in this article related to food barriers and unproductive utilization of food banks, but few points can be argued.
It is imperative to understand the term ‘food insecurity’ to evaluate the article and subsequent reflection. Food insecurity is said to occur when one or more family members of a household become unable to have sufficient and quality food due to inadequate income. These people have to survive with an unhealthy lifestyle and unable to perform their activities at their workplace or educational institutes as well as suffered from chronic diseases and depression. In order to overcome this issue, the Canadian government launched a program termed as ‘food banks’ with the help volunteer community and food industry to support such community. These food banks are considered a good model to alleviate household food insecurity in Canada irrespective of their effectiveness and public concerns.
Loopstra & Tarasuk (2012) interviewed low-income families and reported that 75% of the families are experiencing food insecurity, but even then only 23% of them use the food banks. Subsequently, they analyzed the performance of food banks based on two broader themes. Firstly, there are barriers such as access and lack in information regarding food banks. Secondly, the majority of the people do not use food banks due to self-assumed insufficient need, unsuitability of food, issue of identity and so forth. Moreover, quality of food is integral not only for good health, but it is also necessary to attract the deserving families to utilize such opportunities. It is sad to observe that people have reservations about the quality of food available in food banks. Inadequate provision of sufficient food is also one of the important findings. In other words, I do agree with these realistic findings that forced the people to face food insecurity in the presence of food banks.
In this article, the authors conducted the research by well-defined sampling population considering the families who used the facility of food banks in last one year. They further isolated the families who used this service in last one month to ask open-ended questions. Unlikely, there is a gap in data collection because the sampling population was comprised of the consumers without taking into consideration the management, employees or other stakeholders involved in running the food banks. I assume that it is essential to consider them in such research to attain progressive findings and eliminate the potential ambiguities. For instance, few people have the complaint regarding working hours, insufficient information about requisites documents, prolonged waiting and so forth. Hence, the scenario presented in this article is just like a call for another research emphasizing the public policy response regarding food insecurity in Canada. Moreover, the authors limit the sampling population residing in the urban area of Toronto neglecting the territories or rural areas which is imperative to paint the picture of food insecurity and role of food banks.
In conclusion, the article provides a call for those who concern to eliminate the existing barriers and probe in actions to alleviate the food insecurity and poverty. It is because of this charity model that is not reliable to eliminate or improve household food insecurity.
References
Loopstra, R., & Tarasuk, V. (2012). The Relationship between Food Banks and Household Food Insecurity among Low-Income Toronto Families. Canadian Public Policy, 38(4), 497-514. http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cpp.38.4.497
