Study shines light on need for poverty reduction solutions

Canada has an ‘invisible food network’ that provides $33 billion worth of food to its clients, effectively making it the nation’s second-largest grocery store.

Canada’s Invisible Food Network is the name of a new report from food-rescue organization Second Harvest and Value Chain Management International that demonstrates the need for systemic change in how we value people, food and understand food and charity, said Laurie Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest. 

Why it matters: Recent growth of charitable food providers has been driven by the pandemic.

Canada’s Invisible Food Network (CIFN) report focused on charitable food redistribution players, the amount of food distributed into the hands of Canadians, gaps in service and the impact of COVID-19 on the disjointed food support system. 

The study identified 61,000 community organizations within Canada’s Invisible Food Network. However, a lack of coordination, transportation and cold storage infrastructure to handle the mass quantities of perishable food required to feed Canadians in need is hindering the network. 

“These are all items that are perishable and cannot be distributed without proper refrigeration and cold-chain infrastructure for safe storage and handling,” Nikkel said. “(CFIN’s) are often not equipped to manage scalable food distribution, which means the most nutritious food isn’t getting to the places or the people that need it the most.”

Canada’s Invisible Food Network report is the first to map where food charities are across the country, the amount and quality of food provided, identify the shortfalls and the impact COVID-19 has had on demand and the sustainability of the charitable network. 

There are three times as many food charities as grocery stores in Quebec. In Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, the number increases to four, five in the prairies and balloons to six in British Columbia. 

“What’s more, in every province, there exists a significant shortfall of food to support these organizations,” she said. “We knew that if we wanted to have a meaningful impact, we required the data to identify the breadth and depth of the social safety nets that are providing people with food.”

Second Harvest wrapped the research for the study before the pandemic and shared its findings with governments and NGOs to ensure no Canadian was left behind during COVID-19. However, the pandemic presented an opportunity to augment the research by collecting data on COVID-19’s impact on the CIFN.

“As you might expect, the rate of people experiencing food insecurity has increased,” she said. “Unemployment, underemployment and business closures mean families have less money to purchase groceries and food inflation continues to rise.”

Suman Roy, founder and chair of Feed Scarborough, a program launched in 2018 to provide holiday hampers, up-scaled its efforts in 2020 when the pandemic hit and now serves more than 3,000 people weekly, and the need is increasing. 

He heard seniors and those with limited kitchen facilities struggled with the canned food often available from food programs. 

In response, he launched The Healthy Meal Program, a mobile soup kitchen pilot, providing prepared meals from food trucks to those in different Scarborough communities. Additionally, a survey of students at a downtown Toronto campus revealed 48 per cent self-identify as food insecure and miss a minimum of one meal a day due to financial hardship. 

“We’re not even talking about that percentage who thinks they can afford a ramen and thinks they’re food secure,” Roy said. “Because that is not food security.”

Charitable food organizations saw a client spike of 72 per cent, with almost 6.7 Canadians using food charities during the pandemic. 

Those charities and non-profits experienced a drop in volunteer support, but increased public and private donors slightly offset the funding and food available, which reduced the shortfall.

“The challenge that agencies are now facing and the majority of them voiced to us in the 2021 survey … is that that level of demand is going to continue, certainly well above 2019 levels,” said Dr. Martin Gooch, ECO Value Chain Management International. “But they are concerned that the level of support that has enabled them to meet the majority of those needs will not continue.”

To truly develop better systems and structures to provide healthy food, the government needs to address the systemic issues leading to food insecurities and work on poverty reduction solutions, said Nikkel. 

“We need economic policies that lift people out of poverty, affordable housing, subsidized daycare, a living wage and improved social benefits,” she said. “All of these efforts will increase food security for Canadians, helping people become less reliant on this Invisible Food Network that’s hiding right before our eyes.”

Invisible Food Network Facts

• The 2019 research into Canada’s Invisible Food Network (CIFN) identified 61,301 organizations that may use food as part of their programming, including 15,207 schools.
• While Second Harvest completed the 2019 research just before COVID-19, the pandemic halted the report’s release. 
• Crisis management sparked by the pandemic had a transformative effect on the charitable sector. A subsequent research project was launched in 2021 to estimate changes in demand within vulnerable populations due to the pandemic. 
• In the first three months of the pandemic, over one million became unemployed from March to May 2020, and the same amount of people may have found themselves underemployed. 
• Based on the 2021 survey data, an estimated 6.7 million people, approximately 18 plus per cent of the Canadian population, utilized charities and not-for-profits’ for food. 
• The median number of people served by community food organizations saw a 72 per cent increase from 160 to 275.
• Outside of schools’ student nutrition programs, the total volume of food distributed rose from 6.19 billion pounds to 9.99 billion pounds, a 61 per cent increase. 
• Including school student nutrition programs, the total post-COVID-19 national need climbs to 10.45 billion pounds. 
• Assuming a value of $3.14 a pound, the food provided through these organizations represents $32.85 billion, which would make the CIFN the second-largest food grocery store in Canada. 
• Due to unprecedented support from the public and private sources during COVID-19, the community food organizations saw a drop in the overall national shortfall between supply and demand from 319 million pounds to 162 million pounds of food, despite the increased need. 
• The only province where shortfalls between supply and demand did not diminish was Quebec.
• Several organizations were forced to close, including meal production kitchens. However, five per cent of the 2021 respondents said they established new food distribution programs.
• Other organizations transitioned into providing food vouchers in place of actual food products.
• Of those respondents who pivoted their programs to meet the increased demand, most were typically community development organizations. 
• These organizations attribute their ability to remain open and viable to the Surplus Food Rescue Program, the Second Harvest Food Rescue App, government grants and increased public and private support.