April 12, 2007 – In Montreal, eating a healthy diet costs an average of $ 6.11 per person, per day. The sum seems reasonable, but it is above the ability to pay for almost one in four families (22.7%).
The Montreal Diet Dispensary (DDM) compared the cost of the “Nutritious Food Basket” (PPN) in 73 food markets of different sizes, located on the island of Montreal.1. Based on nutritious elementary foods, the NPP is the tool that the DDM has used since 1950 to establish the cost of a healthy diet, at the lowest price.
Pay the rent or the groceries?
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The price for eating well |
According to the DDM, a nutritious food basket should represent a third (34%) of the budget of low-income families. However, with an annual income of less than $ 22,000, they allocate only 21% of their budget to food, because housing takes up 47%.
“This is why eating a healthy diet at low cost, for a low-income Montreal family, is an impossible mission”, summarizes the Director General of the DDM, Marie-Paule Duquette.
At the very start of the study, in 2005, the average cost of the basket was $ 5.50 per person. It has since risen to $ 6.11, which is an overall increase of 20%. Half of this increase stems from new recommendations for the NPP, the other half from an increase in the cost of milk of 20 cents per liter in three years. “Milk and dairy products count for a lot in the nutritious food basket,” insists Marie-Paule Duquette.
The size of the food store
It is the size of a neighborhood’s food stores that is the determining factor in the cost of the food basket and not its socio-economic profile. Generally, regardless of the territory, the more the store size increases, the more the cost of the nutritious food basket decreases, raises the DDM in its report. It is therefore the surface area of food stores that explains the variation of almost $ 2 between the lowest and highest cost of the basket in Montreal, in two disadvantaged neighborhoods: $ 6.60 in the Center- South and $ 4.71 in Saint-Henri.
However, as a general rule, it is in the richest districts that the PPN is the least expensive since “the stores of very large surface are found in the better-off sectors”. The Dispensary has noticed that, in several disadvantaged neighborhoods, it is mainly convenience stores that serve as food outlets.
The challenge of healthy cooking
The Nutritious Food Basket contains the basic foods for a healthy diet. But the challenge is to cook tasty food for less.
“You have to cook every day, which is demanding,” recognizes Marie-Paule Duquette. In fact, very few well-off people would be able to constrain themselves to the constraints of low-income households. “
But there is a pressing need for education in less well-off families, both in terms of cooking skills and budget. “This is why we must welcome and encourage initiatives to support food security2 in neighborhoods, such as cooperatives, collective kitchens and community gardens, ”she concludes.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
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1. The study on the cost of the nutritious food basket in various neighborhoods of Montreal was carried out from January 18 to 20, 2005. It consisted in carrying out a statement of prices in 73 food stores located in the territory of Montreal, including the size varied from very small (1,000 to 3,000 square feet) to very large (over 30,000 square feet). To find out more about the Montreal Diet Dispensary or its study: www.ddm-mdd.org [consulté le 11 avril 2007].
2. Food security is economic and physical access to safe and nutritious food.
