Food Insecurity within the 2SLGBTQIA+ Community
We know that food insecurity is heavily impacted by a community's rates of poverty, low incomes, and homelessness. It is because of this that we see such high rates of food insecurity in marginalized communities including the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Poverty and chronic low earnings in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is significantly higher than in the overall community. 41% of 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians had a total personal income of less than $20,000 per year compared with the cisgendered- hetrosexual community (26%), and self-identifying trans Ontarians earned on average only $15,000 annually. These low wages in turn impact an individual's ability to meet monthly necessary expenses such as transportation, housing, food, and clothing; When individuals have a hard time meeting these expenses on a regular basis, it can make paying for unexpected expenses,like medical emergencies or the sudden loss of housing, extremely difficult. When these unexpected expenses arise, individuals often take funds from other areas like their grocery budget, even when these areas are already insufficient to meet their needs.
It is important to note that homelessness is also a very serious and common social issue in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, with the community being twice as likely to experience homelessness or housing insecurity at least once in their lifetime. When individuals are experiencing homelessness, they often do not have access to the same resources that the housed do for food preparation and storage.
These factors are often compounded with 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals who are visible minorities or have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A major hurdle facing any initiative to address these systemic barriers is a lack of concrete data on the 2SLGBTQIA+ Community. Many of the studies that have been conducted looking at the 2SLGBTQIA+ community stem from the United States, or have a focus in a particular city. While this information is certainly useful, it is still important that Canada collects accurate, nation-wide data that can be used to create strategies for widespread change.
So what can we as a society do about this?
2SLGBTQIA+ specific data needs to be collected to measure the success of Canada Poverty Reduction Strategy activities in addressing poverty.
Poverty reduction initiatives targeting specific groups at risk for poverty need to attend to 2SLGBTQIA+ specific issues within those groups, and measure their success against non-LGBT members of that group.
Increase the data collection surrounding rates of food insecurity within the Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ community.