Introduction and Objective

Food insecurity is a global issue that impacts millions of Canadians and becoming increasingly prevalent due to COVID 19. Many Canadians are facing food insecurity due to unemployment, delivery shortages and price inflation related to COVID-19. In 2017, 4.4 million Canadians, including 1.2 million children, and 12.4% of households in British Columbia identified as food insecure (Tarasuk and Mitchell, 2020). In May 2020, the prevalence of food insecurity increased slightly, as 14.6% of Canadians or every one in seven, reported experiencing food insecurity. (Polsky and Garriguet, 2022). Scholars anticipate the percentage to increase as reports from 2021 are released (Polsky and Garriguet, 2022). There is evidence that suggests that food insecurity is related to poor health outcomes like mental health illness, diabetes and increased risk of premature death from infectious diseases (Men and Tarasuk, 2021). In figure 1, there is a concentration of food assistance programs in Downtown Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside. The availability of food assistance programs is disproportionate in Vancouver, leaving West and South Vancouver largely unserviced. This is also indicative of spatial disparities between the urban core and residential areas in Vancouver. Both financial and physical barriers are present, impacting Vancouverites’ access to food security.

Figure 1. All Free and Low-Cost Food Assistance Programs in Vancouver

Objective: The purpose of this project was to highlight unequal and inadequate access to food assistance programs in Vancouver. I analyzed the access of low income, women, youth, indigenous and seniors populations to food programs. Distance was used as a measure to quantify different populations’ physical proximity and access to food assistance programs. This research attempts to answer questions like: where are the serviced population located in relation to food programs? How far are populations travelling to access food? Where are food programs needed in Vancouver to alleviate food insecurity?