1 in 4 people in Windsor-Essex don't have adequate access to food: WECHU

Last year, one in four people in Windsor-Essex didn't have secure or adequate access to food, and the average cost of food for a family of four is now almost $1,200 a month, Windsor-Essex County Health Unit board members heard on Thursday. 

In a presentation to the health unit board on Thursday, public health nutritionist Karen Bellemore said they use a tool known as the Ontario Nutritious Food Basket. It measures the cost of a set of pre-determined groceries. 

Right now, it costs $274 per week to feed a family of four that includes two adults. That's up about 0.7 per cent from 2023. 

Bellemore said while it's a small increase, its impact shouldn't be discounted. 

"However, when we still look at those incomes and that rent expense with that food expense, we still have individuals who are really in the negative at the end of the month," she said.

Using that metric they can determine food insecurity, she says. Looking at a variety of income scenarios, they measure how much money a person will have left over after rent and food alone each month. 

For a single person receiving Ontario Works, they're in the hole by almost $400 every month after rent and food alone. Someone who's single and pregnant receiving ODSP would have just $12 left over — not even the cost of a package of diapers, Bellemore noted to the board. 

The situation is fundamentally an income problem, she says, but there are broader health impacts of food insecurity: Poor health outcomes, less ability to afford medication and prevalence of mood disorders among them. 

In fact, people experiencing food insecurity are four times more likely to have mental health struggles, she said, and 60 per cent of people considered food insecure get their income from employment. 

Situation 'just getting worse'

Bellemore said that unfortunately, the numbers aren't shocking. 

"The situation is just getting worse as we go on throughout the years," she said. "I have been in this portfolio here for 10 years and every year these numbers become larger and that gap of what is left over at the end of the month is becoming smaller and in the negatives."

While health units across Ontario use the same metric, those numbers aren't currently compared. But, she said, Public Health Ontario will release a new report with the data this spring that gives an Ontario-wide look. 

Bellemore told the board she is working on a food insecurity screening tool for the health-care partners WECHU works with so they can assess food security and direct patients to support.

When asked by board members about measures that would help the situation, she says they advocate for policy measures including adequate social assistance, living wages and guaranteed basic income. 

The board will bring forward a resolution at its November meeting that would advocate for an increase to the Canada Child Tax benefit, among other measures.