Grocery store gift cards part of new N.L. government initiative to address food insecurity | CBC News
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The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced Monday that it’s partnering with the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security to invest $1.8 million in a new three-year project to address food insecurity in the province.
Education Minister Krista Lynn Howell said the initiative will provide eligible families with grocery store gift cards, store credit, or gift cards to non-profit food programs, which will be delivered through 16 family resource centres across the province starting in January.
The initiative is a welcome move forward, said Josh Smee, the president of Food First N.L. — but it’s not the type of project that addresses the structural issues that contribute to food insecurity.
“They’re not structural solutions that are going to end food insecurity, but they’re still important,” said Smee.
Helping vulnerable families
The provincial government is providing $300,000 per year for the next three years to the project, said Howell, a sum of money that is being matched by Maple Leaf.
About 150 to 200 families across the province will benefit from the program, said Howell, with each family receiving about $150 a month.
Family resource centres, which offer a variety of programs and services to families with children from birth to six, will identify and work with vulnerable families to help best meet their needs.
The provincial government and the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security are coming together for a three-year program that will see some families get gift cards and store credit to help buy groceries. Josh Smee, president of Food First N.L., says it will put food on the table for a few, but it doesn’t really put a dent in the problem of food insecurity.
About 22.9 per cent of households in the province experience some form of food insecurity, said Health Minister Tom Osborne, and one in four children live in a food insecure household.
Programs like these help children grow, develop and learn, he said, and they put the province on the right track to becoming healthier.
“We are committed to becoming the healthiest province in Canada by 2031,” he said at Monday’s news conference.
Sarah Stern, the executive director of the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security, said the province has shown “vision and leadership” by “advancing” its approach to improving food security.
“When we came to Newfoundland and Labrador and everyone was sitting at the table, my jaw kind of dropped,” said Stern, about what she said is a co-ordinated effort across departments to address food security in the province.
“This is amazing that all of these people are talking about the issue and thinking about what role their department can play in addressing food insecurity.”
Good step but more help needed, says advocate
Smee said the project has some interesting potential, and is looking forward to seeing how it’ll play out over the next few years.
People who are food insecure have told Food First N.L. that they want a choice when it comes to how they use supports, so providing people with gift cards or store credit is a good move forward, he said.
He also said that attaching food programs to other supports, such as those offered through family resource centres, is a best practice.
There are likely many things the province will learn from implementing an initiative like this, he said, but that government also needs to consider things like people’s incomes, minimum wage and social benefits.
“I think if we’re talking about shifting that big number, that 22.9 per cent of the population that’s food insecure, that’s mostly a government policy question,” he said.
“I would be surprised if a program of this scale moves that needle.”
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