Commentary

  • Commentary | Story

    Ontario Election 2025: Putting a plan for adequate social assistance on the table

    If the next Ontario government wants to change the course of food insecurity in the province, the place to start would be OW and ODSP.

    February 14, 2025

  • Commentary

    National school food program won’t solve food insecurity for families.
    Here’s what can.

    While the 2024 budget included funding for a national school food program, it lacked any action on the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) – the policy best positioned to move the needle on food insecurity among families with children.

    May 7, 2024

  • Commentary | Research | Resource | Story

    Food insecurity in Canada is the worst it’s ever been — here’s how we can solve it

    Drawing on data from StatCan’s Canadian Income Survey, our new report has found that the percentage of households with inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints rose to 17.8% in 2022 from 15.9% in 2021.

    November 19, 2023

  • Commentary | Story

    Canada Child Benefit’s Seventh Year: Reflecting on its unrealized potential to reduce food insecurity

    As Canada commemorates the seventh anniversary of the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), it is essential to reflect on the program’s design and its role in addressing household food insecurity among families with children.

    July 21, 2023

  • Commentary | Story

    Canada’s national food policy is at risk of enshrining a two-tiered food system

    The federal government’s approach to food insecurity so far has been funding the expansion of local food charity. Doing so is enshrining a two-tiered food system.

    June 6, 2023

  • Commentary | Story

    Food prescriptions – a short-sighted response to food insecurity

    Providers of food prescriptions in Canada have acknowledged that they are “at best, stopgap measures” & “not a solution to food insecurity”. Canada already has a long history of stopgap measures in food charity. Can we afford to entrench another?

    May 25, 2023

  • Commentary | Story

    The 2023 Federal Budget has the right idea, but much more is needed to address food insecurity

    Food insecurity is a problem of income inadequacy. The 2023 federal budget’s “grocery rebate” has the right idea, but falls short.

    March 29, 2023

  • Commentary

    Reconsidering Food Prescription Programs in Relation to Household Food Insecurity

    In their commentary in The Journal of Nutrition, founding PROOF investigators raised important questions about food prescription programs and their relationship with food insecurity.

    February 6, 2023

  • Commentary | Research

    Moment of reckoning for household food insecurity monitoring in Canada

    In our new commentary, we discuss the future of monitoring household food insecurity in Canada now that it is regularly measured on two Statistics Canada surveys.

    October 13, 2022

  • Commentary | Research | Resource | Story

    New report finds persistently high rates of food insecurity, policy action on inadequate income needed

    We recently released our latest report on household food insecurity in Canada. In 2021, 15.9% of households in the ten provinces were food-insecure. Learn more about it here.

    August 16, 2022