Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Charitable food programs such food banks, community meals and soup kitchens continue to provide food assistance to a growing number of food-insecure Canadians. These programs are a community-level, often ad-hoc, response to local needs that have evolved over the past thirty years in different ways with little policy direction. The current "system" is considerable in size yet limited in capacity and, as shown in limited research to date, likely not meeting the nutritional requirements of clients served. While the national Hunger Counts estimate the number of clients served at many food banks across Canada, this count excludes many food banks and most charitable meal provision programs so that how the entire range of these programs delivering food and meals serve or (fail to serve) a growing client-base is not well understood. To date, most research on charitable food provisioning in Canada has been conducted in large cities. However, compared to urban areas, communities in rural British Columbia have lower incomes, lower educational levels and higher rates of unemployment; and, they have reported shortages of food donations due to transportation limitations in rural areas. This study examines food provisioning in a sample of rural communities on Vancouver Island in comparison to urban Greater Victoria, revealing any operational or service inequities for rural communities relevant to policy makers. Results will add value to a current CIHR Pan-Canadian study examining the scope and characteristics of charitable food provisioning in four other major urban centres across Canada.