Household food insecurity and food banks among low income Toronto
The article has sort to find out the relationship between Food banks and household food insecurity among the low income Toronto residents. The article is considered important since it is among the first research papers on the topic of household food insecurity and food banks in Toronto. Through an intensive research, the article has shown numerous reasons for the escalating issue in Toronto. The reasons in the findings are categorized as barriers to the food banks and choosing not to use food bank willingly due to personal reasons (Loopstra & Tarasuk, 2012).
Based on barriers to the food banks, the article looks at the lack of information and difficulty in access as the main causes. Many low income families cannot gain easy access to the food banks due to constraints such as long queues, limited operating hours, stringent food bank eligibility criteria, inaccessibility to the food banks, and too busy food banks. These constraints make it difficult for the needy individuals to gain access to the food banks. As a result, the food banks end up not helping the people who require the assistance.
The article also looks at lack of information about the location of a food bank and the period which the food bank provides its services as a major constraint. According to the research, individuals find it difficult to access these food banks thus preventing them from getting the assistance they need. Individuals do not know on time when the food banks operate and where they operate. The article thus has provided enough research information on barriers to food banks as a constraint preventing low income households from accessing the food banks (Loopstra & Tarasuk, 2012).
The article also looks at choosing not to use food banks as a main reason for the families not accessing food banks. Low income families look at their reputation as important thus decide not to access the food banks due to the identity that it gives them, unsuitable foods, degradation and insufficient need for food aid. These reasons have thus reduced the use of food banks in Canada thus not providing the services that it was supposed to provide to the people. Even though the people from the low income families choose not to use food banks for this reason, they seem to care more about their social status rather than their economic welfare in the country.
The article has thus achieved its goal of showing how the problem of household food insecurity in Toronto is related to the food banks available. The article has well explained about the issues relating to food insecurity in Toronto which can all be prevented. However, the article has failed to identify solutions that can be used to solve this problem in the long run. Technically, from the use of common sense, educating the low income household families on the importance of using food banks as it will save their little resources for investments would be an effective advice (Loopstra & Tarasuk, 2012).
Increasing food banks and the quality of service delivery around the areas including providing the foods to the people door to door can also be possible ways to end the problem. The article thus failed to explain how solutions to this problem can be used to empower the people from the low income households in Toronto and maybe can be later used in all the Canadian states. Despite the failures, the article hit a major milestone in highlighting the problem faced by the households in Toronto thus attracting the attention of most Canadians and the human relief organizations. The article thus is important as a research article on the food insecurity problem facing households in Toronto.
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. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Retrieved 25 February 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41756766
