Valerie ...

What disturbing findings, though when we stop to really look at what is
going on around us ... the findings are not unexpected.  Will the report
be presented to the provincial government?  Is there any political
action that you would like CLICK4HP subscribers to take?

Debbie Bang
Coordinator/Researcher
St. Joseph’s Community Health Centre
Consumer Health Information Service
2757 King Street East
Hamilton, Ontario  L8G 5E4
(905)  573-7777 ext. 8054
(905) 573-4828 FAX
[log in to unmask]
web site: http://www.stjosham.on.ca


Liz Rykert wrote:

> For more information about this report please
> contact Valerie Tarasuk at: <[log in to unmask]>
>
> **********************************************************
> "Nutritional Vulnerability and Food Insecurity among Women
> in Families Using Food Banks".
>
>         - A report on a Health Canada-funded study, prepared
> by Valerie Tarasuk, George Beaton, Jennifer Geduld and
> Shelley Hilditch, Department of Nutritional Scineces,
> Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.  March, 1998.
>
>         EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
>
> Over the past two decades, the demand for charitable food
> assistance has steadily grown, and a massive ad hoc system
> of food banks has become established in Canada.  Although
> initially construed as temporary, emergency relief
> operations, food banks now appear to have become a fixture
> of Canadian society.  This study was undertaken to assess
> the food insecurity and nutritional vulnerability of one
> subgroup of food bank users, women living with children.
> The results of interviews with a sample of 153 women
> recruited from emergency food relief programs in
> Metropolitan Toronto reveal a disturbing picture of severe
> poverty, food scarcity and deprivation.
>
> The vast majority of women in this study were dependent on
> social assistance, and 90% reported household incomes which
> were less than two-thirds of the Statistics Canada
> Low-Income Cut-Offs.  Sixty-five percent of the sample were
> lone parents.  Many were socially isolated, and many
> described themselves as being in poor health. In addition,
> most of the women in this study had body weights outside the
> range that would be considered healthy.
>
> Although the extent of reported food deprivation varied
> widely among households, 93.5% reported some degree of food
> insecurity over the past 12 months.   Many reported
> experiences of food deprivation (hunger) among adults, and
> 26.8% of women also reported that their children had endured
> some food deprivation in the past year.  Importantly, the
> food deprivation documented in this study occurred in spite
> of the charitable food assistance women were able to obtain
> from food banks, and in spite of the host of other
> strategies they employed to augment scarce household
> resources.  In their efforts to avoid or alleviate problems
> of food scarcity, the women resorted to a wide range of
> strategies, including delaying payment of bills, giving up
> telephone and other services, and selling possessions, as
> well as seeking charitable food assistance.  Where possible,
> they also sought assistance from family and friends.
>
> Women in households with severe food problems appear to be
> at particular risk for nutrient inadequacies.  An assessment
> of women's current dietary intakes revealed prevalences of
> inadequacy of 38% for iron, 31% for magnesium, 28% for
> vitamin A, 23% for folate, 15% for protein, and 12% for
> zinc.  Calcium intake levels were also well below
> recommended levels for most women.  Although children's
> dietary intakes were not assessed, it is difficult to
> imagine that those in households characterized by severe
> food insecurity are not also experiencing heightened
> nutritional vulnerability. While short-term consumption of
> an inadequate diet is unlikely to have long-term health
> consequences, there is little evidence that the hardships of
> households in this study are temporary.
>
> The documentation of extensive food insecurity among
> households reliant on social assistance programs illustrates
>  the serious inadequacy of current social assistance benefit
> levels and the inability of an ad hoc, community-based
> system of charitable food assistance to effectively
> compensate for them.  There is an urgent need for social
> assistance benefits to be set at levels which ensure that
> families are capable of meeting their essential needs.