Though much progress has been made with Ontario’s current Poverty Reduction Strategy, more needs to be done. A focus on food and healthy eating is crucial because it is the foundation for a society to function properly and effectively. We have three recommendations that address the challenges that low income families face in consuming a nutritious diet.

These recommendations would not only help low income households better access and afford a quality diet, but they would also generate long term benefits for them and for the overall economy. These proposals would enable us to lower health costs, improve our income security system, and reach our full economic potential.

More specifically, our recommendations are aimed at the three challenges for low income families in consuming a nutritious diet – affordability, the quality of food purchased, and accessibility to healthy food options:

• A new housing benefit that will free up constrained finances to purchase food
• Improved incentives that will increase accessibility by low income communities to lower priced and healthier food options
• Lower dairy prices through the eventual elimination of the restrictive quotas by dairy marketing boards

The poor still pay more: Challenges low income families face in consuming a nutritious diet was written by Milway, J., Chan, K., Stapleton, J., & Cook, B. and published in 2010 by the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity, Toronto Public Health & Open Policy Ontario.