The Memphrémagog RCM is generally known for its mountains and lakes. There are plenty of tourists and boaters here. However, there are also people who live here year-round, who may be vulnerable to threats like food insecurity. Before getting to the heart of the matter, let’s take a look at the RCM as a whole. It is made up of 17 municipalities and covers an area of about 1,300 km².
The Memphrémagog RCM is home to about 50,500 people. Between 2001 and 2016, the population grew by 20.4%, which is higher than in the rest of Estrie and Quebec (Memphrémagog RCM, 2022).
Since the start of the pandemic, local stakeholders have noted an increase in the population, which includes young families looking for a rural lifestyle and retirees changing their cottages into homes.
43.6% (Estrie 50.5%, Quebec 57%) of households are made up of children and adults.
26.9% (E 26.3%, QC 24.6%) of these are single-parent families.
15.3% (E 14.8%, QC 13.6%) are considered low-income families.
25.5% (E 20.3%, QC 18%) of RCM residents are aged 65 and over.15.6% (E 19.5%, QC 18.8%) of these people are considered to be in a low-income group.
25.2% (E 29.7%, QC 30.1%) of seniors live alone.
27.3% (E 36.8%, QC 38.6%) of the population lives in rented housing.
30.4% (E 32.3%, QC 33.7%) of the population reports spending 30% or more of their gross annual income on housing.
Average rental prices in 2022 were $1417 per month.
5.3% (E 2.7%, QC 5.5%) of the RCM population does not speak French, which is around 2,600 people. This raises issues regarding access to Services.
To fully understand the degree of disadvantage that a community is facing, two indicators need to be taken into account:
The material component refers to goods and amenities for daily life and whether people living in the community have access to them. This is assessed based on the populations’ level of education, employment, and income;
The social dimension refers to the strength of the social network, i.e., family and community. This is assessed based on a person’s living situation: living alone, single parenting, marital status (widowed, separated, divorced).
According to the INSPQ (2019), The [material and social deprivation index] thus groups together six indicators that were chosen for their ties to health status and any of the two forms of deprivation.
One particular feature of Memphrémagog is that the region is vast, and the RCM comprises several municipalities that each present very different degrees of material and social disadvantage. As can be seen in Table 1, the community of Les Tisserands, located in the municipality of Magog, and the town of Stanstead are the areas with the most disadvantaged populations. On the other hand, populations in the municipalities of Orford, Austin and the Township of Hatley have the most social and material advantages.
It is important to determine which communities and municipalities are most disadvantaged, in order to better target our future food security interventions. According to an INSPQ study (2018), “The more materially and socially disadvantaged households are, the greater the food insecurity.”
Currently, most food security services are concentrated in Magog. For some communities, this means a 30-minute drive to access services.
The sprawl of the RCM’s population may mean that people in some municipalities are unaware of the services available to them. What’s more, Magog-based organizations may have difficulty reaching this population, as they are not always familiar with local realities or have no contacts, in the various municipalities, who could help bridge the gap.
In recent years, a number of organizations have noticed a decline in donations of fruit and vegetables from supermarkets and non-perishable foods from individuals. This means that organizations have to spend more money to meet the demand for food aid.
One of the challenges for community fridges is food sorting. When these organizations receive donations from outside the BAM (Memphrémagog Food Bank), a lot of sorting has to be done. This involves significant volunteer hours or sorting done at the discretion of the users. This can have an impact on people’s dignity, when they only have access to food that is close to the end of its life.
In addition, one of our partners pointed out that almost all the food consumed in her municipality is imported. This issue needs to be taken into consideration, as it means that the RCM is dependent on the outside world for its food supply. This could become a major problem if food imports ceased.
Only a few organizations are actively participating in discussions on an ongoing basis. A few partners sporadically show up to meetings, but there is no real commitment on their part.
Also, the committee does not include grocers or farmers, despite the fact that they are important partners for community organizations, since they provide them with free foodstuffs. In our view, they could contribute to the vision of a safe and healthy food system for the people of Memphrémagog.
This issue is particularly interesting, as it varies from one municipality to the next. It was noted that in the more privileged municipalities, mobilization rates are quite high. In other municipalities, however, it’s more difficult to mobilize the community and to get residents to participate in activities. It’s even harder to reach them to offer services.
Many community food security organizations could not function without the help of volunteers. For many of them, it is always a challenge to find volunteers who are available on a regular basis.
Many partners have noticed that the people most at risk of food insecurity are also those with the least cooking skills.
The first thing we noticed was the lack of referrals being made from one organization to another.
Beyond the lack of referrals, we noticed a lack of empowerment in the food aid process. People ask for food assistance, but these are recurring requests and nothing seems to be changing to improve people’s quality of life. Few people move on to the second stage of food self-sufficiency. They do not return to the job market if they are no longer employed (via socio-professional integration), and they do not turn to collective kitchens, which are an interesting way to pay less for groceries and learn new things.
As a result, some organizations find it difficult to recruit participants for their activities. The majority of organizations say they know that some people might need help, but they cannot reach them. Also, not all organizations perceive the organization and development of services in the same way. This leads to misunderstandings and the spread of misinformation.
It is important to raise the above-mentioned issues, as they have had and may have impacts on the population of the Memphrémagog RCM. Please note that these impacts are not listed scientifically, but are hypotheses based on discussions with various stakeholders.
First, we can assume that if food security is not improved, it may worsen or be passed on to future generations. One widely anticipated impact is a reduction in the lifespan and quality of life of the population, especially among the elderly, whose incomes will fall sharply after retirement. If partnerships are not maintained, or if they deteriorate, some communities could see a decrease in access to food aid. This could also increase the gap between the population and available services. The direct impact of inadequate referrals is that users who are poorly informed encounter refusals, and thus they experience failure and stop turning toward these resource providers.
According to CIUSSS de la Capitale Nord (2022), food insecurity can lead people to resort to all kinds of strategies that may ultimately affect their dignity, mental health, interpersonal relationships, and physical health.
CéSAM’s main objective is to ensure effective and efficient food aid, to meet the challenges tied to food insecurity.
