[3] CFS involves social, economic, and institutional factors, and their interrelationships within a community that impact availability and access to resources to produce food locally.
[8] Markers of vulnerability to food insecurity in Canada and U.S. include low income, reliance on welfare, lone motherhood, lack of home ownership, and Aboriginal status.
[3] Hamm and Bellows purport that “food security is experienced most poignantly and addressed most innovatively at the community level” (p. 37).
[3] Some of the existing CFS initiatives, such as identifying food costs and quality in low-income neighbourhoods, also seek to provide the evidence needed to make changes in policy.
[13] Measuring CFS is difficult due to its multifaceted nature and the complexity of the issue, a lack of standardized tools, and because of the diversity of needs across different communities.
Agency is extremely important in CFS as it reflects community members’ ability to influence policy directly related to food security as both individuals and as a collective.
CFS is largely determined by the overall well-being of a community including multiple economic and social factors within the food environment.
[25] Resilience is an important component of CFS as unpredictable economic and environmental influences can greatly impact the food system.
Resilience is an important component of CFS as unpredictable economic and environmental influences can greatly impact the food system.
These barriers relate to the complexity of the concept, the difficulty of data collection, and the lack of political will among those in power to make effective changes a reality.
[26][27] CFS is socially complex as it involves participation from individuals of various different perspectives and interests, as well as on multiple scales (e.g. local, national or international).
Due to store availability, accessibility, and price, many low-income communities cannot meet the food needs required for CFS.
[3] A proven and consistent measuring tool ensures validity when collecting data and makes it easier to monitor changes in food security status over time.
[31][32] Providing political stakeholders with the research evidence needed to show the benefits of increased spending on social policies and programs to improve CFS is difficult.
[5] For example, showing that policy measures, such as increases in minimum wage or welfare benefits, can improve food security without strong supporting evidence can be challenging.
[12] Connecting social services with the food system will strengthen partnerships across sectors and help to build capacity amongst community members.
[29] Community development may be necessary for success in CFS to connect people who may ordinarily remain isolated from each other and to commit to long-term solutions.
[12] Advocacy is also important for social equity to ensure that everyone in the community has access to nutritious foods and the ability to participate in decision-making.
[12] Conducting research in a community to determine the cost of a nutritious diet and the availability of healthy foods in low-income neighbourhoods can result in data that can be used to advocate for policy change.
McCullum suggests several approaches including: advocating for public policies to support a multi-sectoral approach to CFS; assessing policies that are currently in place to see how they can enable or hinder CFS; collaboration among stakeholders across sectors such as education, labour, economic development, agriculture and health; and involving all stakeholders, including community members, in the decision-making process to alter or create more effective policies that ensure availability of healthy foods to all community members.
In addition, the government need to find out innovative and sustainable ways to help local residents have easier access to food.
At the community level PAR is an excellent strategy to help achieve CFS as it involves those directly affected in the issue.
PAR is conducive to knowledge mobilization, increased awareness, capacity-building, evidenced-based research, direct action, and collaboration of efforts from various stakeholders, individuals and organizations working to improve CFS and CFS-related policy.
Food sovereignty is a term popularized by La Via Campesina, an international peasant movement composed of ordinary citizens, small and medium scale farmers, rural women and indigenous communities.