The Food and Hunger Action Committee was not re-established. The following information is provided for archival purposes.
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Planting the Seeds: The Phase I Report of the Food and Hunger Action Committee (PDF 424 Kb)
Executive Summary
Food, Hunger and Income
Food for Survival
Food for Health
Food for Social Well-being and Community Building
Food as Part of the Local Economy and Environment
The Role of the City in Food Security
Recommendations
Vital statistics
Executive Summary
The Food and Hunger Action Committee was formed in December 1999 to study food security in Toronto and recommend ways to reduce hunger, improve the nutritional health of Torontonians, and support food-based initiatives that benefit Toronto's economy, environment and quality of life. The proposal to create the Committee came through Toronto's Millennium Task Force following from recommendations of the World Food Day Conference, hosted by the City and the community coalition, Hungerwatch.
The Committee took a collaborative approach to its work, bringing together City councillors, City staff, the staff of non-profit agencies, food program participants, volunteers, clergy and interested members of the public to discuss the wide range of issues related to food and hunger in Toronto. Hundreds of people participated by making presentations to the Committee during organized tours of community-based food initiatives across the city, as well as at an open meeting. The Committee released a summary of this community consultation process in May 2000 in "Food for Thought: A What We Heard Report."
The current report completes Phase I of the Food and Hunger Action Committee's work. It includes information gathered from the community consultations, an inventory of food and hunger-related initiatives in which the City of Toronto is involved, a review of current literature in this area and makes recommendations on how to proceed with Phase II.
The community consultation and the inventory show that Toronto has hundreds of food programs and initiatives, but that there is little consistency among programs and no overall co-ordination. Many programs depend heavily on donations and volunteer labour, which can be unpredictable in the short run and unsustainable in the long run. Given the fact that Toronto depends heavily on charitable organizations to provide food to people living in poverty, it is clearly time to re-examine the City's dependence on food charity.
Food, Hunger and Income
The problem of hunger is closely tied to the deepening poverty of Toronto's low-income citizens. The benefits of the recent economic boom have not been distributed evenly throughout society. Changes in eligibility requirements in income support programs such as employment insurance and workers' compensation, as well as cuts to social assistance benefits at a time of rising housing costs, have left many people unable to both pay their rent and feed their families. In some cases, people are so impoverished that they have been evicted from their rental housing and now live in emergency shelters or on the street.
Food for Survival
Toronto food banks serve about 60,000 people every month. City-operated or funded programs such as emergency shelters and prenatal programs also use food bank food. Volunteer groups run emergency shelters that serve meals to homeless people. More than 650,000 charitable meals are served every month in drop-ins, hostels and similar meal programs. Many of these programs have been in existence for 10 to 15 years, and have become permanent fixtures in Toronto. Because so many people rely on them as sources of food, they now act as an unofficial, non-governmental "top-up" to social assistance benefits or minimum-wage incomes.
Food for Health
The City of Toronto plays an important role in promoting nutritional health, mostly through its Public Health programs. Poor nutrition is a problem that affects Torontonians in all income groups. Overdependence on fast food and convenience food, eating disorders, and busy lifestyles that leave no time for a nutritious breakfast or a relaxed evening meal may contribute to food-related illnesses. The Toronto Food Policy Council has estimated that 20 per cent of the $17 billion spent annually on health care in Ontario can be traced to diet-related health problems.
The most important priorities for nutritional health are infants, children and pregnant women. Toronto Public Health offers perinatal programs that aim to give children a good nutritional start in life, and public awareness programs to encourage better eating habits. The City also contributes about a quarter of the cost of Toronto's 300+ children's nutrition programs, mostly delivered through schools. Several non-profit organizations, such as FoodShare and the Red Cross, offer programs to provide families, elderly persons and disabled people with nutritious food, through initiatives such as the Good Food Box and Meals on Wheels.
Food for Social Well-being and Community Building
Food is important not only for physical health - it can also play an important role in community building and improving the quality of life for all Torontonians. Community gardens, cooking programs and congregate dining programs bring people together to grow, prepare or enjoy food. Through these programs, people learn new skills and get to know other people in their communities. Community gardens help green the environment and make families more self-sufficient.
Food as Part of the Local Economy and Environment
Food is also an essential part of Toronto's economy. One in 10 people in our city works in the food sector, which includes restaurants, food stores and large food manufacturing plants. The City of Toronto supports the Toronto Kitchen Incubator, which provides facilities for start-up food businesses. However, Toronto is behind many other North American cities in capitalizing on the benefits of urban agriculture. In addition, people living in certain areas of Toronto do not have good access to large food stores, either because there are few stores in the vicinity, the neighbourhood is poorly served by transit, or because the only available shops are expensive convenience stores.
The Role of the City in Food Security
In addition to its Public Health and Community Services programs, many City of Toronto policies affect the food security of thousands of Torontonians. For example, transit policies and pricing affect the access of low-income people to stores and food programs. Parks and Recreation policies affect the land available for cultivation as community gardens. Economic development policies affect the growth and viability of food-based businesses.
Despite Toronto's important role in the production, distribution and consumption of food, the City has no overall food policy. The next phase of the Food and Hunger Action Committee's work will focus on creating such a policy, as well as an action plan to ensure that the City takes a consistent, co-ordinated approach to food-based needs and opportunities.
The City of Toronto cannot act alone, however. In Phase II, the Food and Hunger Action Committee will also consider ways in which the City, in cooperation with community groups and anti-hunger organizations, can advocate to other levels of government regarding their responsibility to relieve hunger and improve food security for all Torontonians. The goal must be to prevent problems, rather than continuing to pour money into stopgap measures.
Recommendations
The Food and Hunger Action Committee will continue to work in partnership with the community and City staff and recommends that Toronto City Council:
- Endorse the principle that all people in Toronto should have an adequate supply of safe, nutritious, affordable and appropriate food;
- Promote the City of Toronto's role in advocating, coordinating and supporting systems, policies and programs to ensure food security in Toronto;
- Approve the following actions for Phase II of the Food and Hunger Action Committee's work:
- Develop a Food Charter for the City of Toronto;
- Develop a Food and Hunger Action Plan for the City of Toronto that proposes concrete strategies to improve food security and access to safe, affordable, appropriate and nutritious food for all Torontonians, required to improve the co-ordination and delivery of services related to food and hunger, and recommends appropriate roles for each level of government;
- Report back to the new City Council with the Food Charter and the Food and Hunger Action Plan by February 2001;
- Identify priority initiatives for the 2001 budget process within the context of the Food and Hunger Action Plan.
Vital statistics
- Percentage of Toronto's lone-parent families living on less than $20,000 a year: 45
- Percentage of Toronto's singles living on less than $20,000 a year: 53
- Amount that food bank users had to spend on all needs other than rent, per day, in 1995: $7.40
- Amount that food bank users have to spend on all needs other than rent, per day in 2000: $4.95
- Percentage of food bank users who have no money for food at least once a week: 50
- Percentage of food bank users who spend more than 50 per cent of their income on rent: 66
- Number of calls to Foodlink, Street Helpline and Community Information Toronto about food each year: 18,000
- Number of children aged 5 to 12 in Toronto: 235,000
- Number of meals and snacks served to school children each year: 53,000
- Number of low-income women who become pregnant each year in Toronto: 10,000
- Number of low-birthweight babies born each year in Toronto: 2,000
- Number of community gardens in Toronto: 100
- Value of produce grown in community gardens in Toronto each year: over $1 million
- Number of Toronto wards without any community gardens: 11
- Number of congregate dining programs in Toronto: 89
- Number of farms in Toronto, according to 1996 census: 42
- Total gross farm receipts from Toronto farms in 1997: $6 million
- Estimated percentage of Toronto's produce that could be grown within or close to the city: 25
To order additional copies of this executive summary or to order the full report of "Planting the Seeds: The Phase I Report of the Food and Hunger Action Committee," please contact the City of Toronto at 416-392-5222.
