The 2023 Nutritious Food Basket Report from the HKPR District Health Unit has exposed the daunting reality for low-income families in the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District.
The report illustrates how expenses can often outweigh income, leaving families financially stretched.
Rising living costs are forcing families to make tough choices between nutritious meals and essential expenses like rent and utilities.
The HKPR District Health Unit projects that a family of four (two adults, two children) would allocate approximately $1,184 monthly towards maintaining a healthy diet in 2023. According to the report’s household income analysis, if the family earns minimum wage, they would devote 28 percent of their earnings to food meeting Canada’s Food Guide standards. After covering rent expenses, they would be left with only a few hundred dollars to address other fundamental living costs.
“Food insecurity is a serious social and public health problem,” says Sarah Tsang, Registered Dietitian and Health Equity Coordinator with the HKPR District Health Unit. “In order to address food insecurity, we need income-based solutions that are long term and that focus on poverty reduction such as, adequate incomes, improving employment standards, increasing social assistance rates and providing basic income guarantee.”
To read the full 2023 Nutritious Food Basket Report ‘Addressing Food Insecurity and Poverty in the County of Haliburton, City of Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland County’, please visit Food Insecurity | HKPR District Health Unit.
(Written by: Joseph Goden)
