Abstract
Traditional foods and food sharing are important components of Aboriginal culture, helping to create, maintain, and reinforce social bonds. However, limitations in food access and availability may have contributed to food insecurity among Aboriginal people. The present article takes a closer examination of coping strategies among food insecure households in urban and rural settings in Canada. This includes a comparative analysis of the role of social networks, institutional resources, and diet modifications as strategies to compensate for parent-reported child hunger using national sources of data including the Aboriginal Children’s Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Descriptive statistical analyses revealed that a majority of food insecure urban and rural Inuit, Métis, and off-reserve First Nations children and rural Canadian children coped with hunger through social support, while a majority of urban food insecure Canadian children coped with hunger through a reduction in food consumption. Seeking institutional assistance was not a common means of dealing with child hunger, though there were significant urban-rural differences. Food sharing practices, in particular, may be a sustainable reported mechanism for coping with hunger as such practices tend to be rooted in cultural and social customs among Aboriginal and rural populations.
Highlights
Food security, as defined by The World Food Summit in 1996, “exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious foods to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” [1]
The present report considers cultural aspects which may relate to food access, availability and quality as they pertain to coping mechanisms employed to deal with hunger between urban and rural Aboriginal and Canadian children
3% among Métis children, and 5% among off-reserve First Nation children younger than 6 years old [28,29]. This compares to 1% of all children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) sample, suggesting that reported hunger is higher among Aboriginal children than Canadian children in general
Summary
As defined by The World Food Summit in 1996, “exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious foods to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” [1]. To be food insecure is to have limited access and availability of nutritious and preferred foods. Food insecure households are more likely to use coping strategies that reduce food intake [7,8] and consequences often include physical and psychological health effects [9]. In Canada, Aboriginal people are generally at greater risk of food insecurity than are non-Aboriginal people [3]. Rates of moderate and severe food insecurity among Aboriginal households were 19% and 14%, respectively, compared to 6% and 3%. Food insecure children are at greater risk of hospitalization and poorer general health, physical health As food insecurity and hunger affect the overall health of children, it is important to understand available and relevant coping behaviors for food insecurity
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
