IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/clh/resear/v15y2022i10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Sensitivity of Food Bank Visits to Social Assistance, Housing and Labour Market Conditions in Toronto

Author

Listed:
  • Ron Kneebone

    (University of Calgary)

  • Margarita Wilkins

    (University of Calgary)

Abstract

We make use of monthly data describing the number of visits to food banks operated by the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto. We identify the extent to which food bank visits may be associated with changes to public policies, to changes in the cost of shelter and to changes in labour market conditions. Our measures of these changes are those that are relevant to individuals and families with limited incomes and limited abilities to borrow or save. We find that the number of visits to food banks is sensitive to measures of all three of these types of changes; food bank visits increase with increases in rent, with falls in the minimum wage and with reductions in the disability benefits available to people requiring social assistance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ron Kneebone & Margarita Wilkins, 2022. "The Sensitivity of Food Bank Visits to Social Assistance, Housing and Labour Market Conditions in Toronto," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 15(10), March.
    • Handle: RePEc:clh:resear:v:15:y:2022:i:10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Foodbank.Kneebone.Wilkins.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ali Jadidzadeh & Ron Kneebone, 2018. "Patterns and Intensity of Use of Homeless Shelters in Toronto," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 44(4), pages 342-355, December.
    2. Rachel Loopstra & Valerie Tarasuk, 2012. "The Relationship between Food Banks and Household Food Insecurity among Low-Income Toronto Families," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 38(4), pages 497-514, December.
    3. J. C. Herbert Emery & Aaron C. Bartoo & Jesse Matheson & Ana Ferrer & Sharon I. Kirkpatrick & Valerie Tarasuk & Lynn McIntyre, 2012. "Evidence of the Association between Household Food Insecurity and Heating Cost Inflation in Canada, 1998-2001," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 38(2), pages 181-215, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Higgins, Christopher D. & Páez, Antonio & Kim, Gyoorie & Wang, Jue, 2021. "Changes in accessibility to emergency and community food services during COVID-19 and implications for low income populations in Hamilton, Ontario," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    2. Flora Douglas & Fiona MacKenzie & Ourega-Zoé Ejebu & Stephen Whybrow & Ada L. Garcia & Lynda McKenzie & Anne Ludbrook & Elizabeth Dowler, 2018. "“ A Lot of People Are Struggling Privately. They Don’t Know Where to Go or They’re Not Sure of What to Do ”: Frontline Service Provider Perspectives of the Nature of Household Food Insecurity in Scotl," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Matteo Vittuari & Fabio De Menna & Silvia Gaiani & Luca Falasconi & Alessandro Politano & Jana Dietershagen & Andrea Segrè, 2017. "The Second Life of Food: An Assessment of the Social Impact of Food Redistribution Activities in Emilia Romagna, Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Benita Y. Tam & Leanne Findlay & Dafna Kohen, 2014. "Social Networks as a Coping Strategy for Food Insecurity and Hunger for Young Aboriginal and Canadian Children," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Kelly Skinner & Erin Pratley & Kristin Burnett, 2016. "Eating in the City: A Review of the Literature on Food Insecurity and Indigenous People Living in Urban Spaces," Societies, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Ourega-Zoé Ejebu & Stephen Whybrow & Lynda Mckenzie & Elizabeth Dowler & Ada L Garcia & Anne Ludbrook & Karen Louise Barton & Wendy Louise Wrieden & Flora Douglas, 2018. "What can Secondary Data Tell Us about Household Food Insecurity in a High-Income Country Context?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Kelly J. Hodgins & Evan D. G. Fraser, 2018. ""We are a business, not a social service agency." Barriers to widening access for low-income shoppers in alternative food market spaces," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(1), pages 149-162, March.
    8. Germán Forero-Cantor & Javier Ribal & Neus Sanjuán, 2020. "Measuring regional differences in food security from access and stability dimensions: A methodological proposal based on elasticities," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 66(3), pages 112-119.
    9. Sue Booth & Christina Pollard & John Coveney & Ian Goodwin-Smith, 2018. "‘Sustainable’ Rather Than ‘Subsistence’ Food Assistance Solutions to Food Insecurity: South Australian Recipients’ Perspectives on Traditional and Social Enterprise Models," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, September.
    10. Nayantara Hattangadi & Ellen Vogel & Linda J Carroll & Pierre Côté, 2019. "“Everybody I Know Is Always Hungry…But Nobody Asks Why”: University Students, Food Insecurity and Mental Health," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-10, March.
    11. Federico Roncarolo & Sherri Bisset & Louise Potvin, 2016. "Short-Term Effects of Traditional and Alternative Community Interventions to Address Food Insecurity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, March.
    12. Ron Kneebone, 2018. "Housing, Homelessness and Poverty," SPP Briefing Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 11(29), November.
    13. Holmes, Eleanor & Black, Jennifer L. & Heckelman, Amber & Lear, Scott A. & Seto, Darlene & Fowokan, Adeleke & Wittman, Hannah, 2018. "“Nothing is going to change three months from now”: A mixed methods characterization of food bank use in Greater Vancouver," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 129-136.
    14. Fry, Jane M. & Farrell, Lisa & Temple, Jeromey B., 2023. "Energy poverty and food insecurity: Is there an energy or food trade-off among low-income Australians?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    15. Sriroop Chaudhuri & Mimi Roy & Louis M. McDonald & Yves Emendack, 2021. "Coping Behaviours and the concept of Time Poverty: a review of perceived social and health outcomes of food insecurity on women and children," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 1049-1068, August.
    16. Alkaabneh, Faisal & Diabat, Ali & Gao, Huaizhu Oliver, 2021. "A unified framework for efficient, effective, and fair resource allocation by food banks using an Approximate Dynamic Programming approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    17. Sylvain Charlebois & Meghan Smook & Brenda Nyambura Wambui & Simon Somogyi & Megan Racey & Don Fiander & Janet Music & Isabelle Caron, 2021. "Can Canadians afford the new Canada's Food Guide? Assessing Barriers and Challenges," Journal of Food Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, December.
    18. Bedük, Selçuk, 2018. "Identifying people in poverty: a multidimensional deprivation measure for the EU," SocArXiv 7prxq, Center for Open Science.
    19. Qiping Yang & Tong Yuan & Lina Yang & Jiaojiao Zou & Meimei Ji & Yefu Zhang & Jing Deng & Qian Lin, 2019. "Household Food Insecurity, Dietary Diversity, Stunting, and Anaemia among Left-Behind Children in Poor Rural Areas of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-13, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:clh:resear:v:15:y:2022:i:10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bev Dahlby (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/spcalca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.