Analysis of Elaine Power Article Its Time to Close Canada Food Banks

Question: Describe about the Analysis Of Elaine Powers Article- It's time to close Canada's food banks? Answer: Introduction Food Bank is the place where the food is provided and donated at free of cost to those people who are in need of food. The food banks in Canada were set up to reduce the poverty-related food security issues. It was estimated that around 833,000 people in Canada still rely on the food banks for nutritional help and among those, one-third of them are children. It is quite evident that the lives of Canada people have been impacted due to food security (Cbc.ca, 2013). According to the article It's time to close Canada's food banks written by Elaine Power, determines the factors that have impact on the food security. Specifically, Power mainly emphasizes on the food security which is based on eating nutritious food for good especially for the populations who have low-income rate. There are various individual factors like personal preferences and food skills, cultural factors like values and norms and traditions, policy factors like institutional food policies and food labeling policies, s ocial factors like social support , gender etc are some of the determinants of health. This paper argues that there are various problems that are acting as barriers in the food bank system. Analysis Of The Article According to the author, food security can be defined as the uncertain or limited availability of nutritional safe and adequate foods or uncertain or limited capability to gain these suitable foods in a communally acceptable way. Power keeps on arguing that the food banks actually cannot mitigate the risks of food security. The reason behind such argument is that, she believes that many hungry people actually do not use the food bank system, as they believe that it is a shame for receiving handouts and also other who use the food banks generally live hungry as the food banks are unable to meet their demand due to tight supplies. She also notes that, in spite of energies and intentions of the volunteers or who work at food banks, the agencies are band-aids instead of solving the solutions of the issues due to which hunger increases (Power, 2011). According to Taber (2014), the latest statistic Canada report states that more than 1.7million household people or 4million Canadians are ma inly exaggerated by food security issues. This means that are quite worried about being able to feed their families or not(The Globe and Mail, 2014). Although, Power suggests that there are various factors that have a strong impact on the food security, it is very challenging to quantify the food security that actually varies with the house to house. Through all her arguments she kept on insisting that Poverty cannot be solved by the Food banks. Tackling poverty is like wrestling with various challenging issues and finding ideas to solve those issues. Thus, it is the time to make an effective political system that would help to solve poverty. It is the time for the government to take up the responsibilities to solve poverty (Flanagin Winker, 2006). They are mainly accountable for making sure that all the Canadians have adequate well-being and health that would at least help them to live a good standard of living. This is quite clear from this article that income is one of the most significant social determinants of health. Income levels, actually helps to shape the overall conditions of living, influences the behavior and health like good quality diet, proper physical activity etc and also have impact on the psychological functioning. Discussing the situation of Canada, it is quite understandable that the level of income actually determines the social determinant quality of health like housing, food security etc. It is to be noted that the low level income people predisposes social deprivation and material (Riches, 2014). The greater is the deprivation, the less likely is that families or the individuals can afford even the crucial prerequisites like housing, clothing and food. Thus, the deprivation contributes to the social exclusion by making it challenging for the participants to take part in recreational, educational and cultural activities. Thus, the social exclusion actually affects the health of an individual and also decreases the capabilities of satisfying the everyday life. Thus, these consequences cannot be managed by the food banks (foodbankscanada.ca, 2013). Power correctly suggests that it is the time for the government to look and solve the issue of poverty and income level. As Power says that food banks cannot solve the issue of poverty, however, discussing on the ways that she asserts need to be realized properly. She does not deny on the fact that the food bank really helps in reducing the poverty by feeding the hungry people, however, through her years of experiences in this area, she clearly tries to find various aspects of the food banks. She mainly argues that the food bank only can solve the issue for smaller segment (parl.gc.ca, 2013). Conclusion In conclusion, as the poverty is day by day increasing in Canada and demand for food is also increasing, it is quite difficult for the food banks to meet the rising demand as they are able to supply only limit food. As the food bank is mainly set up by the charity people they are reluctant to take their services benefit and thus they have to leave the many people hungry as they have to accept the stigma by the charity. As the food banks mainly rely on the services of the charity people, they supply the food based on the limit provided by the charity people or the food donated by the other people in the society. Thus, it is making quite difficult for the food banks to develop a balance between the supply and the demand of the food. Lastly, another critique that the author brings in, in the article is that the food banks provide to minute supplement people and thus end-up by scattering resources in small area. She clearly concludes that income level is the main contributing factor in t he issue of food security and it is the duty of the government authorities to understand and solve the issue of hunger. References Cbc.ca,. (2013). 800,000 Canadians still relying on food banks. Retrieved 6 February 2015, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/800-000-canadians-still-relying-on-food-banks-1.2366405 Flanagin, A., Winker, M. (2006). Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. JAMA, 296(24), 2970. doi:10.1001/jama.296.24.2970 Flanagin, A., Winker, M. (2006). Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. JAMA, 296(24), 2970. doi:10.1001/jama.296.24.2970 foodbankscanada.ca,. (2013). A comprehensive report on hunger and food bank use in Canada, and recommendations for change. Retrieved 6 February 2015, from https://www.foodbankscanada.ca/FoodBanks/MediaLibrary/HungerCount/HungerCount2013.pdf parl.gc.ca,. (2013). Income Inequality in Canada. Retrieved 6 February 2015, from https://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/411/FINA/WebDoc/WD6079428/411_FINA_IIC_Briefs%5CHamiltonRoundtableforPovertyReductionE.pdf Power, E. (2011). It's time to close Canada's food banks. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 6 February 2015, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/its-time-to-close-canadas-food-banks/article587889/ Riches, G. (2014). Food banks dont solve food poverty. The UK must not institutionalise them | Graham Riches. the Guardian. Retrieved 6 February 2015, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/08/food-banks-poverty-uk-canada-right-to-food The Globe and Mail,. (2014). The dilemma between healthy eating and staying above the poverty line. Retrieved 6 February 2015, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/the-dilemma-between-healthy-eating-and-staying-above-the-poverty-line/article21150445/?page=all The Globe and Mail,. (2014). The dilemma between healthy eating and staying above the poverty line. Retrieved 6 February 2015, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/the-dilemma-between-healthy-eating-and-staying-above-the-poverty-line/article21150445/?page=all