Food insecurity down on P.E.I., but professor questions whether drop is sustainable

P.E.I. should pin social assistance payments and the minimum wage to inflation instead of investing in community food initiatives, says a professor from University of Toronto who tracks food insecurity in Canada.

Valerie Tarasuk's latest research suggests about 15 per cent of Island homes were food insecure in 2021— defined as living without reliable access to a enough affordable and nutritious food. 

She found five per cent of Islanders were facing severe food insecurity, and one in four children under 18 were living in food-insecure homes.

In the spring, the P.E.I. government announced it has $200,000 to spend this year for community fridges, pantry projects and community gardens. There are also plans to continue the province's school lunch program, which cost close to $2 million last year. 

Tarasuk said that although these initiatives are well-meaning, they won't solve the Island's food insecurity problem. 

"There are many arguments for school food programs or community programs, but they will not change these numbers. And we're talking a quarter of children under the age of 18 living in food-insecure situations in 2021."

Tarasuk noted that between 2019 and 2021, there was around a three-per-cent drop in the number of Island homes facing food insecurity,  which the P.E.I. government can "take some credit for."

But with P.E.I. continuing to have the highest inflation rate in the country, and more people turning to food banks, she said more needs to be done to continue the downward trend.

"Unless the incomes of the lowest-income people in the province, unless those incomes are indexed or increased in a way that keep pace with these rising prices, there's no question that people will be worse off," she said.

'Lightning rod for health problems'

Tarasuk is concerned that without addressing the incomes of Islanders on social assistance, there could be an increase in severe food insecurity, a situation in which households have gone without eating at times because they didn't have money for food. 

They're not just worried or, you know, compromising the quality of what they're eating; they're actually sometimes going hungry.- Source

"They're not just worried or, you know, compromising the quality of what they're eating; they're actually sometimes going hungry. And that's a very, very serious problem," she said.

"It's a lightning rod for health problems of all sorts — mental health problems, physical health problems, you name it. Somebody who's in a severely food-insecure household is at risk, as are their children."

CBC News asked the province for comment, but has not yet received a response.