Project 462641

People with food insecurity lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and an active and healthy life. Food insecurity has been increasing steadily in Canada. Food insecurity affects people's physical and mental health and social functioning in numerous ways, as it leads to various infectious, chronic and mental illnesses. It is also disproportionately found among racialized people and those with lower social and economic resources. Food insecurity is thus an important consequence and case of poverty, poor health, and social neglect and also an imporant driver of health inequity. Much of neighbourhood-based inequity is discussed to date, such as the concentration of greenspace, crime and income, but geographic injustice of food insecurity is not known, since government surveys collecting food insecurity status cannot provide enough data points to make a statistically reliable neighbourhood (e.g., borough) map. In this project, we create such neighbourhood map of food insecurity using advanced statistical algorithms that make best use of existing datasets about food insecurity. Specifically, the project aims to estimate the proportion of people affected by food insecurity across boroughs in the island of Montreal from 2010 to 2020. The historical trends of borough-level food insecurity in the island of Montreal will, for the first time, highlight likely widening gaps of food insecurity across communities. Such a map will allow municipal governments and researchers to acknowledge neglected inequalities in food insecurity towards social policies and programs enhancing access to healthful and affordable food. The map will also inform public and community members about the presence of food injustice that exacerbated health and social inequalities in Montreal. Thus, this project will serve as an important step for community advocacies towards exploration and removal of structural and historical drivers of food insecurity.