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January/February 2002 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Editor’s Notebook Inside Story Feature: Harvest of goodwill À la carte Reverberations

Harvest of Goodwill (Feature) | Canadian food firsts | Just the beer facts
Food nutrition lables get a facelift | Securing a meal | Archives
The ABCs of healthy eating | Comfort food | Dining al fresco | A taste of Paris

Canada produces plenty of food and has some of the cheapest edibles in the world, but that doesn’t spare us from the problem of hunger. A recent survey by Statistics Canada revealed that an estimated 3 million Canadians were considered “food insecure,” meaning they lacked sufficient food, couldn’t afford a healthy diet or worried about having enough money for food.

According to the National Population Health Survey, 35 percent of low-income households, and a surprising 14 percent of middle-income households, reported food insecurity in 1998-99.

That doesn’t shock Sue Cox, executive director of Canada’s second largest food bank. She has seen an increased demand and changing demographic at Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank. "A rising percentage of food bank users are employed," says Cox.

Even though employment has been fairly stable, affordable housing is scarce, says Cox. People are left with little money for food after paying the rent. "It’s not that these people aren’t wise shoppers," she says. "They simply can’t afford the food."

And food insecurity goes beyond the pocketbook. Paradoxically, the survey notes that food insecurity is associated with obesity since cash-strapped Canadians often end up buying inexpensive, fatty items, and may binge when they do acquire more food. Also, food-insecure households were three times as likely as food-secure households to report emotional distress.

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