FOOD SECURITY STRATEGY DRAFT
2.1.4 Food Insecurity Food insecurity is a reality for many people in Penticton and in the Okanagan. The Canadian Community Health Survey,31 indicates that 8.4% of the population of the Okanagan Health Services Delivery Area (HSDA) experience food insecurity.32 A total of 3.6% of the community experience severe food insecurity. Additional indicators show that 6.6% of the population sometimes cannot feed children balanced meals. The same proportion indicated that sometimes or often food didn’t last and there was no money to buy more. Almost a third of respondents (31%) indicated that in the last year they had been hungry but did not have money to buy more food. Results from the community survey undertaken for this project indicate that 24% of respondents either sometimes or often worry that food will run out. Among respondents who have experienced some level of food insecurity, 80% are female, 10% identified as part of the 2SLGBTQI+ community (which is considerably higher than the rate of overall survey participation), 41% were individuals living alone or with roommates, and 25% and 15% were couples and lone parents with children, respectively. The rate of food insecurity was higher among lone parents with dependents, of whom 61% indicated that they often or sometimes worried that food would run out, as well as among unemployed respondents (51%).
Data sourced from most recent survey from 2017/2018. Downloaded from Statistics Canada, “Canadian Community Health Survey – custom tabulations”. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/82C0022 31
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