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EDITORIAL: Putting food on the table

S quamish needs to become more food secure, and part of that is having a living wage. Just before 2017 ended, a report was released that stated the annual food costs for a family of four in Canada was set to go up by $348 in 2018.
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Squamish needs to become more food secure, and part of that is having a living wage. 

Just before 2017 ended, a report was released that stated the annual food costs for a family of four in Canada was set to go up by $348 in 2018. 

Food will cost a total of $11,948 for the average family this year, according to Canada’s Food Price Report 2018.

The biggest cause of the increase is the rising cost of vegetables, which is expected to increase four to six per cent due to below average precipitation in farming regions of the southern U.S..

Fruit prices are expected to increase by one to three per cent. 

The report also notes that more time-crunched families are prioritizing convenience and either eating out or buying ready-to-eat products, and this habit is predicted to lead families to spend 30 per cent of their food budget on convenience eating. 

That is the highest percentage in history. 

In places like Squamish, the problem isn’t really the cost of food, it is the cost of everything else that we don’t have control over such as our housing costs, childcare and the like. 

One of the best ways to become more food secure, according to local experts with Squamish CAN, (a great resource for all things food related at squamishcan.net) is to support local farmers. We can individually do this by purchasing a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box. 

You pay a fee at the beginning of the season and then regularly pick up a box of locally grown, organic goods.

This way, the money helps local farmers survive and thrive, making us a food-secure community. The boxes also provide healthy nutrients to your family and is a set amount that overall will likely cost much less than hitting up the local grocery store multiple times in the same period. 

These corridor farms offer Community Supported Agriculture boxes: Paradise Valley’s Artisan Farm and Nutrient Dense Farms — they usually offer an egg share too with​ Stoney Mountain Farm. In Pemberton, the boxes are offered through Rootdown Organic Farm, Laughing Crow Organics and Four Beat Farm. 

If you can purchase a box, then do so. 

Of course, for many working poor, this sounds great, but when you have $200 to your name for food for two weeks the idea of putting out two payments of $124 for several weeks of veggies, though in the long run will be better, seems impossible when you need a variety of groceries to last until the next payday. 

Before we can be food secure, Squamish residents need to be making a living wage. Therefore, we need to collectively get behind the provincial and national campaign that calls on  employers to pay wages high enough to provide the basics to families with children.

Learn more about the campaigns at www.livingwageforfamilies.ca/.

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