A growing food insecurity crisis prompted Ottawa’s Bruce House, an organization that primarily provides support and housing for people living with HIV/AIDS, to start operating a food pantry in 2019.
This isn’t part of the organization’s original mandate and its members are hoping the city’s new food security strategy will let them focus on their core work.
“Our vision was ‘there’ll be a few cans of soup and things like that, just to tide people over for a few days’,” Patrick Morley, Bruce House’s manager of communication, told Capital Current. “This has gone from a small side project to a major program and one of the top reasons new clients come to us.”
The food they receive — in partnership with the Ottawa Food Bank — is stored in a small space inside of their headquarters on Bank Street. Cans of soup and non-perishables line the shelves and across the hall, they have boxes and a fridge filled with produce and cold products.
The number of people who visit the pantry has doubled since it first opened and it has become a significant part of the agency’s work, often requiring staff to balance food distribution with other critical services, Morley added.
“People are going hungry. We have to offer food, it is not an option,” he said. “But at the same time, we do that with the awareness that that time is not spent on housing, defending someone in front of the landlord-tenant board, with a client going to a specialist appointment. … So it’s very challenging as an agency to always feel like you’re doing more with less, and a food program is a lot more.”
One in four households experience food insecurity, Ottawa Public Health reports. The Ottawa Food Bank has seen more than half a million visits last year.
While food banks were initially designed to handle an emergency, they have become a long-term solution because of rising food insecurity, says Alta Vista Ward Coun. Marty Carr.
“We need to see changes that allow people who rely on social assistance, or who otherwise are vulnerable in terms of income security, to have that safety net that’s not in place right now.”
In September, city council voted unanimously on a motion moved by Carr to initiate a Food Security Strategy designed to ask the provincial and federal governments to “boost social assistance programs.”
Carr hopes the strategy will lead higher levels of government to better support residents access safe and nutritious foods. The notice of the strategy’s motion will be passed on to Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney, along with other members of the provincial and federal governments.
A Food Security Symposium was held on Oct. 27, and consultants will summarize the findings and priorities in a report that will guide the action plan next fiscal year, Carr added.
While the City of Ottawa has a food security pillar as part of its Poverty Reduction Strategy, more support from higher levels of government needs to come through. Carr noted how during the pandemic, upper levels of government provided additional funding to support food bank operations. But that funding began to decrease in 2023, which is when she also noticed an increase in food bank visits.
Meanwhile, community-run food pantries and cupboards, such as the one at Bruce House, have opened to provide food delivered from food banks to members of their community.
Morley hopes that the strategy ensures that food insecurity is considered in all city decisions and services.
“We can’t have a city that functions in a human-needs silo. If the city okays a new shelter, one of the questions should be, ‘how will you feed your residents?’ Because the answer can’t be, ‘we’ll figure it out later,’ (or) ‘we’ll call the Ottawa Food Bank,’ because (it is) beyond capacity. It has to be that mindset across the board of every opportunity.”
Barriers
Morley says some of the barriers to addressing food insecurity that he’s observed include the “broken” economy, the disconnect between income and food costs and inefficiencies within the food industry. The lack of a cohesive response from other levels of government is also a significant barrier.
“Whatever level you speak to today acknowledges the problem, but says it’s a federal, provincial or municipal responsibility. It’s like a game of tag,” he added.
But he says there needs to be a broader understanding of food insecurity and its impact on individuals and communities.
“(Food insecurity) hasn’t hit the middle class hard enough, to be really blunt,” he said. “Why is housing top of the conversation with politicians, right? Because it hit the middle class. … Food insecurity is still seen as ‘this can’t affect me’.”
Carr also expressed how poverty is considered one of the primary issues when it comes to food insecurity, with nearly 39 per cent of food bank clients relying on social assistance. One of the other goals of the strategy is to advocate for changes to income security programs to prevent individuals from having to choose between paying bills and buying food, she added.
Another barrier face is the lack of accessibility to food banks. The non-profit Feed The City Ottawa was founded in 2020 to address this issue. Volunteers deliver food from partnered food banks to those who are unable to access them in their communities, including seniors, people with disabilities and those with health challenges.
Feed The City also serves rural communities, as people in there often face accessibility barriers.
“What we’re trying to do is create a centralized emergency food home delivery network,” said the organization’s executive director, Michelle Ruel. “We’re really talking about the most vulnerable-housed community members in Ottawa that have no other way of getting emergency food and are in a hunger crisis.”
While the demand for food has increased as more food bank partners have joined, the amount of food available from food banks has decreased. Ruel says Feed The City has faced a significant increase in people who rely on their services, with more than 500 food boxes delivered to more than 200 households each month.
Ruel also said she’s observed other barriers, such as increased housing and food costs, and an aging population facing ‘renoviction.’ Other diverse reasons for food insecurity, such as job loss, injuries and immuno-compromised conditions require comprehensive solutions.
“Sometimes we don’t know what’s going on on the ground level. It’s hard to make decisions higher up,” she said.
Ruel hopes that the city’s strategy will address the importance of engaging with front-line organizations and the need for additional funding to support their work. “We all have slightly different needs, thoughts, reflections or knowledge.”
Morley also hopes that Bruce House will one day be able to reduce its reliance on their food pantry and return to providing emergency food only.
“I would like that to happen because our clients aren’t going hungry.”
