Overwhelming demand puts food insecurity helpline on hold

A helpline that supports those in Newfoundland and Labrador struggling to put food on the table has temporarily stopped taking most new calls due to overwhelming demand — an indication, according to one researcher, that levels of food insecurity have reached new heights.

Food First N.L. has put its community food helpline on hold in order to catch up with a growing backlog before the holidays, said CEO Josh Smee.

"Driven by the stunning increase in the cost of food, we've been seeing a huge jump in demand, and so the queue for help has gotten very long," he said Monday.

The helpline, started near the beginning of the pandemic, supports people unable to access other food programs by offering gift cards, hot meals and food hampers. Smee said the helpline is still taking requests for hampers in the St. John's area, and he hopes it will fully reopen in January.

Smee said the wait time for a call back reached six weeks at one point, and he expects demand to remain "intense" going forward.

"We're still figuring out how to manage that because it doesn't serve people all that well if they have to wait six weeks for this kind of emergency support," he said.

Smee says more resources from the provincial government would be appreciated, but he said the helpline is a "Band-Aid" rather than a permanent solution.

"We could double or triple the budget and the staffing and there would still be challenges, I think, because right now, so many households are in a really precarious position," he said.

Canary in the coal mine

According to a study from Proof, a University of Toronto research program, 17.9 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador households were food insecure in 2021, meaning they struggled to afford food. Newfoundland and Labrador also had the worst rate of childhood food insecurity in Canada: 26.4 per cent of children live in households that aren't able to access nutritional food.

Tim Li, Proof research program co-ordinator, said the high demand for Food First's helpline shows that in 2022, inflation has worsened food insecurity.

"I think that instances like this, and also the reports of rising demand from food banks across Newfoundland and Labrador and across Canada is a bit of a canary in the coal mine for the struggles that Canadians are facing," he said.

He said those struggles are tied to income inadequacy — which encompasses more than just food insecurity.

"These households are also struggling with rent, they're struggling with utility payments, they're struggling to fill prescriptions and follow medication as prescribed, all because of the financial circumstances that they're in," he said.

Proof also examines policy solutions to food insecurity in Canada.

"We found that policies that increase the incomes of low-income households is what will reduce food insecurity," he said.

Li said those solutions include indexing income support to inflation — echoing previous demands from poverty advocates like Smee.

"Unless this policy becomes reindexed to inflation, inflationary pressures would diminish these benefits," he said.

The provincial government increased income support by five per cent this year, but Li said it doesn't make up the lost ground. 

However, Li said hopes the provincial government will take further action, pointing to poverty reduction measures recommended by the Health Accord N.L. That plan calls for a universal or guaranteed basic income plan, which the government has committed to exploring. In October, the provincial government announced a basic income program for youths receiving government support.

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