Eating healthy is hard. It's even harder for people who can barely afford to eat at all

Household food insecurity is directly linked to health issues, including heart disease and diabetes. For someone living with a food ailment like celiac disease or diabetes, going to the grocery store is a big expense, and specialty foods are not usually available through food charities. That means their nutritional needs are often not met.

More than 26,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians rely on food banks regularly, but many of these stopgap measures can't meet an increasing demand.

Julie Greene, assistant executive director of Celiac Canada, says a gluten-free diet is the only relief for celiac disease.

"Currently, there is no treatment, there's no cure," she said. "The only medicine is eating food that is gluten-free. And unfortunately, the cost of gluten-free food is incredibly expensive right now."

Tracking down specialty foods is not easy or affordable, she says.

"When you go to the grocery store, you know you're doing your risk calculation: 'is this food safe or not?' Now you've got to add on 'can I afford it or not?'" she said "And then: 'Do I need to make an adjustment to the rest of my budget to make this work?' That's when it starts to be a burden." 

Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition in which eating gluten sparks an inflammatory response in a person's body and affects their ability to absorb the nutrients from food.

Diabetes Canada senior manager Ann Besner says day-to-day diabetes management is much more difficult in food-insecure households.

"A lack of food can make it really difficult to eat consistently, which is important when you're living with diabetes," she told CBC News. "When you're not eating regularly, it can make your blood-sugar levels much more difficult to manage. And then certainly diabetes is a condition in which it's very challenging to maintain." 

Besner says financial support from the governments and collaboration with community organizations are ways to combat food-insecurity.

"We get people calling our organization for various referrals to community supports and there are a lot of excellent programs out there, but people are really struggling and and we know that to address this problem it's going to take a whole systems approach," she said.

"So at Diabetes Canada we are advocating to governments, including the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, to fund the development and implementation of a comprehensive province wide diabetes strategy." 

The Frecker Drive food pantry in St.John's is a small cupboard that is stocked with essential food items by neighbours. Jane Henderson, one of the founders, sees the food insecurities that people face first-hand .

"I think it's just a tough time for people. Research shows that for every person that reaches out to a pantry or to a food bank, there's probably eight to nine more people who are food insecure."

The pantry was intended for emergency use, but Henderson says people now depend on it.

"It was meant to be used as an emergency measure for folks who didn't have anything for supper or they just wanted something to tide them over until their next paycheck. It's a very small pantry, but we are finding now that we simply cannot keep up with the demand."

Henderson fears that with the recent closure of the Corpus Christi Food Bank there will be more hungry people who rely on small community run pantries, like the one on Frecker Drive.

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