25% of Manitoba’s off-reserve First Nations population food insecure – CBC

Nov 09, 2015

One of out every four First Nations people living off-reserve in Manitoba faces an ongoing struggle to put food on the table, data released today by Statistics Canada shows.

Detailed information on food security stemming from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey revealed that Manitoba has the highest proportion of off-reserve First Nations people with either “low” or “very low” food security. British Columbia and Saskatchewan have the next highest levels of food insecurity with 19 and 21 per cent, respectively. Québec had the lowest level of food insecurity with 13 per cent.

Food insecurity is the inability to access affordable, healthy food.

Food Matters Manitoba, an organization whose mandate is to help food insecure communities, said these numbers are far from surprising.

“It demonstrates the reality that we see in our community work across the province, that indigenous people in this province are far more likely be more food insecure than the rest of the population,” said acting executive director Stefan Epp-Koop.

Read More:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-food-insecure-first-nation-1.3311093