Food Insecurity in BC: Understanding the Impact and Taking Action

Food insecurity is a major issue in BC that negatively impacts individuals’ overall health and wellbeing. This includes their likelihood of living with type 2 diabetes and ability to manage the disease. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront once again the limitations of food-based responses at an individual level, while also offering glimpses of effective population-level interventions. Join us to learn more about food insecurity and why we need to re-think how we talk about and respond to this complex issue.

Learning objectives:

• Define and describe food insecurity in BC
• Summarize the relationship between food insecurity and type 2 diabetes
• Describe interventions that use population health approach to address food insecurity

Speaker Bios

Rebecca Hasdell

Dr. Rebecca Hasdell is a Health System Impact Fellow with the BC Centre for Disease Control and the Food Policy Lab (Dalhousie University), and an Adjunct Faculty member in the Northern Medical Program (University of British Columbia). Rebecca’s research examines the social determinants of health and what we can do to address them at a population level. She has extensive experience in program planning and strategic policy for local governments, research institutions and not for profit organizations in the areas of poverty reduction and food security. In 2019/2020, she was a postdoctoral fellow with the Basic Income Lab at Stanford University where she led research on a guaranteed income. Rebecca completed her Masters of Public Health (Health Promotion) and PhD at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.

Henry Lau

Henry Lau is the food security coordinator on the Population and Public Health team at the BC Centre for Disease Control, a part of Provincial Health Services Authority. In his role, Henry collaborates with partners across the Ministry of Health and health authorities to advance food security by informing policy and action. Henry is a registered dietitian and is deeply drawn to the work of food security because of his roots working in community and his interest in the social determinants of health and health equity.