This summer, I attended a meeting at the Calgary Food Banks with Kari Stone, our Vice President of Programs. It was a roundtable meeting of all the agencies in Calgary that address food insecurity in seniors. This in itself is revelatory. A gathering of charities working together to address the problems of one group might seem like a lot, but the reality is that the problem of senior food insecurity is getting worse. Seniors who live alone, live in remote communities, have low income, are new to Canada, and Indigenous seniors, are more vulnera
Statistics Canada reported in 2019 that 10 per cent of seniors were experiencing food insecurity. By 2022, this rose to 13.4 per cent, and by 2023, it rose again to 14.3 per cent. According to BioMed, older adults who live alone reported a 6.9 per cent food insecurity rate, compared to about 2–3 per cent for those living with partners or families.
Poverty and low income are strong predictors of food security. Seniors with a household income under $20,000 face drastically higher odds of food insecurity. There are clear links between access to food and overall health outcomes and access to medical care. If your finances are such that you must choose between food and medication, hunger usually wins. It’s a problem that’s much bigger than seniors simply having enough to eat – it’s a societal issue that also impacts our healthcare system. Since 2020, Unison has been working hard to address senior food insecurity. For a few decades, we ran a small grocery delivery program in Calgary for low-income seniors.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, we delivered frozen meals, soup and hampers to shut-in seniors. We partnered with Soup Sisters, Meals on Wheels, and many generous donors to support older adults. However, the more seniors we served, the more referrals we received. We launched a Food Rescue program and started working with grocery stores, Cobs Bread, and Second Harvest to meet the growing demand.
Naively, we believed that the food insecurity issues seniors were facing would end once the COVID lockdown was lifted. When they didn’t, we stepped up our game and partnered with Food Banks Alberta and Food Banks Canada to grow our response.
Unison also addresses food insecurity at the Veiner Centre in Medicine Hat. We run a thriving Meals on Wheels program, and we pick up food from the Root Cellar every morning for low-income seniors.
Our Thanksgiving hopes and dreams are to raise ample funds to support our food security programs. Thanksgiving is not only about having food on your table, but about sharing it with someone who doesn’t. Help us support households experiencing food insecurity in Medicine Hat and Calgary, and please, give what you can: unisonalberta.com/donate