How COVID-19 Reveals Gaps in Food Security

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront and exacerbated long-standing food security and equity issues. Food shortages go beyond the striking images of empty store shelves. Demands on Canadian food banks have increased by 20 to 40 per cent depending on the region. While line-ups at the food bank may be visible, there are many invisible impacts of food insecurity on physical and mental health and well-being, with poorer and more vulnerable communities being hit the worst. With unknowns regarding the evolution of the pandemic and forecasts of the Canadian economy, food insecurity may intensify and affect more and more Canadians.

Watch the webinar to hear our speakers present lessons learned from initiatives that have aimed to address the current food insecurity challenges, whether at the scale of UBC’s campuses or the entire province. You'll hear their ideas on building a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient food system that dignifies the basic right to eat. Moderated by Ainsley Carry, Vice President, Students, University of British Columbia.

Presented by alumni UBC in partnership with UBC Wellbeing and UBC Equity and Inclusion. 

Recorded August 20, 2020.

Speakers

Human Rights and Research:

Laura Castrejón, MA(Planning)’10 – PhD candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program (ISGP) and Institute for the Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), UBC
Graham Riches – Professor Emeritus, UBC School of Social Work

The UBC Micro-system:

Raveena Gowda – Current UBC student; UBC First Generation Students Union representative
Sara Kozicky, MPH’19 – Food Insecurity Project Manager, UBC Wellbeing; Registered Dietitian

Provincial Initiatives and Issues:

Jessie Newman, BSc(Food Nutr)’15 – Aboriginal Health Dietitian, Vancouver Island Health Authority
Rebecca Sovdi – Senior Policy Analyst – Wellness, First Nations Health Authority

This is the ninth webinar in our COVID-19 series.

More information on speaker initiatives:

• UBC Food Security Initiative webpage
• Email the UBC First Generation Students Union: ubc.fgsu@gmail.com
• UBC First Generation Students Union on Facebook
• First Nations Health Authority – Planning for Food Security: A Toolkit for the COVID-19 Pandemic

Articles:

• Letter: Can UBC do better to feed its food insecure students?
• ‘A huge shock to the system’: COVID-19’s impact on food insecurity on campus
• Adapting to coronavirus: how B.C. First Nations balance food security and conservation
• Food security and Canada's agricultural system challenged by COVID‐19
• How Food Banks Prop up a Broken System
• Food banks feed people. Why don’t they fight hunger? Andy Fisher, The Counter 10.26/17
• The pandemic has laid bare structural inequalities in our food systems, advocate says
• Student food insecurity: a problem before, during and after COVID-19

Webinars and Podcasts:

• The Torchbearers podcast on Spotify
• UBC Farm: Future of Food Webinar Series
• UBC Learning Circle: Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health
• Food Security in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic - McGill
• Food Insecurity in Canada - U of T

Books and Toolkits:

• Food Bank Nations. Poverty, Corporate Charity and the Right Food, by Graham Riches (2018) (request for review copy)
• Big Hunger. The Unholy Alliance between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups, by Andy Fisher (MIT Press, 2017)
• York Region Food Charter Toolkit