‘Hunger in early life’: exploring the prevalence and correlates of child food insecurity in Canada

Background: Although food is a basic human right, food insecurity remains a major problem in the Global North including Canada. Children constitute a subgroup that is particularly vulnerable to food insecurity, with recent evidence showing that 1 in 6 Canadian children are food insecure. The rising rate of child food insecurity alongside its links with several adverse health outcomes reinforce the need to pay attention to its determinants. Although food insecurity is a multidimensional phenomenon shaped by diverse factors, in the Global North, including Canada, it is generally framed as a financial problem. Consequently, food policy has largely prioritized income support programs to the neglect of potentially important non-monetary factors. These non-monetary factors are also rarely explored in the literature despite their potentially relevant role in shaping policy responses to child food insecurity. Drawing data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (N = 21,455 households with children) and broadening the scope of potential predictors, this paper examined the correlates of child food insecurity in Canada. Results: Findings show children in visible minority households (OR = 1.12, p < 0.01), single-parent households (OR = 1.55, p < 0.001), households with five or more members (OR = 1.35, p < 0.001), households with the highest level of education being secondary education or lower (OR = 1.14, p < 0.05), households where the adult respondent reported a very weak sense of community belonging (OR = 1.32, p < 0.001), poor physical health (OR = 1.61, p < 0.001) and poor mental health (OR = 1.61, p < 0.001) had higher odds of being food insecure. Children in lower income households were also more likely to be food insecure. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the multidimensional nature of child food insecurity and highlights the need for food policy to pay attention to relevant social factors. Although commonly highlighted economic factors such as household income and employment status remain important correlates of child food insecurity in Canada, non-monetary factors such as visible minority status, sense of community belonging and living arrangement of parents/guardians are noteworthy predictors of child food insecurity that need equal policy attention. © 2022, The Author(s).