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3 ways Canadians are cutting food costs — and why experts say those tactics won't ultimately fix hunger | CBC News
Bulk buying, couponing and urban farming are three ways of fighting high food prices, tied to inflation. But experts say community organizations and individuals can’t solve the problem of hunger and poverty on their own.
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Inflation forces food banks and families to innovate, but experts say a national food policy would go further
With food prices in Canada on the rise, some Canadians and community organizations say tactics to help cut the cost of their grocery bills are all the more essential.
Those tactics are being further tested by inflation, with food prices up 3.9 per cent from where it was a year ago.
Over the past 12 months, prices for meat products spiked by almost 10 per cent, with seafood, dairy, eggs also seeing significant increases. Edible oils and fats, like olive oil, canola oil and margarine, are up 18.5 per cent.
High food prices especially hurt those with low income — a disproportionate number of whom are Black, Indigenous or people of colour, said Zsofia Mendly-Zambo, a PhD candidate at York University in Toronto who specializes in health policy and equity.
A recent online survey by the non-profit Angus Reid Institute found that 45 per cent of respondents said they currently find it either difficult or very difficult to feed their household, while another from Dalhousie University found 40 per cent of those surveyed have changed their behaviour this year to save money at the grocery store
Bulk buying, couponing and urban farming are three ways of fighting high food prices commonly used by community organizations and individuals.
Urban farming to save money
Adwoa Toku says the best way she's found to cut her food costs is simply to grow her own.
This spring, Toku, 27, and her roommates planted a garden at their rental home just west of downtown Toronto. "I would say this is probably the healthiest I've been eating in my entire life — but also the cheapest as well."
Toku, who is vegan, works for a community farm in north Toronto, so she has a decent understanding of agriculture. But this year is the first time she's farmed for herself.
Her crops included collard greens, herbs, peppers, tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries and callaloo, a fast-growing, tall, leafy green.
Couponing and sale shopping
Kinesha Harry is a mother of six and an expert bargain hunter. In the family's northwest Toronto apartment, there's a large closet stockpiled with goods — proof of how hard she works to find deals to offset the growing costs of food.
"I know what it is to struggle. And I know that it's possible to buy stuff for next to nothing," she said.
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innovate : to introduce changes and new ideas / to develop a new design, product, idea, etc ...
go further : to say or do something more extreme
squeeze : to get in, through, under, etc. with difficulty / If you are queezed by financial demands, they cause you financial problems
to reduce the amount of money that a person, company, or government can spend or earn
bulk buying : the activity of buying larget quantities of a product, especially to get cheaper prices
crop: (the total amount collected of) a plant such as a grain, fruit, or vegetable grown in large amounts
offset : to balance one effect against an opposing effect, so that there is no great difference as a result
to pay an amount of money when you do something, for example travelling by air, that produces a lot of harmful waste products. The money is used to do something that protects against climate change, such as planting trees.
struggle : a very difficult task that you can do only by making a great effort
insidious : (of something unpleasant or dangerous) gradually and secretly causing harm