According to a study based in rural Ontario, rurality impacts food security in both positive and negative ways. In terms of negative impacts, lack of transportation options and infrastructure were crucial detractors of the ability to obtain food consistently. A study conducted in rural Nova Scotia (which I helped conduct) describes the lack of transportation options for mothers, particularly during Covid-19 when fears of contagion in crowded places were at an all-time high. Not only did the lack of reliable and affordable transportation limit access to community events and programs for families, but it also meant a lack of access to grocery stores (and food banks) and often a choice between money for a taxi to transport food and buying enough food to last until the next grocery trip.
As I have established in a previous blog, mothers and their infants are particularly vulnerable in terms of their required nutrition and the effects of food insecurity. In order to avoid the devastating costs to both rural mothers and infants and society, barriers to food security such as transportation must be examined.
Transportation is such an essential factor in the health and well-being of rural residents that the Rural Health Information Hub calls it a rural social determinant of health. According to the World Health Organization, social determinants of health are “the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes” and include income and social protection, education, food insecurity, and many more. It makes sense, therefore, that there may be additional factors in different contexts, such as a rural setting, that influence health. In rural settings, it is common to have little to no public transportation options, and having one’s own transportation incurs more costs in terms of gas and maintenance because of the longer distances that must be travelled. Because of this “transport poverty,” or the lack of means of mobility to access work, education, health, and social networks, services such as Great Beginnings (from a previous blog) that deliver food provisions to pregnant women and mothers with infants become much more necessary.
The possible solutions to transport poverty for mothers and their babies are myriad and interconnected with other social determinants of health. According to the Tamarack Institute, services such as on-demand buses and dial-a-ride can help greatly reduce transport poverty in rural areas. Using a technological platform or app, users can request a bus when they need it or phone ahead and book a ride in the case of dial-a-ride. Aside from transportation infrastructure, adequate income, such as through a basic income program, could help address transport poverty by allowing rural moms to afford a car and sufficient food for their family. Transportation and transport poverty are not to be overlooked when examining rural family food insecurity and must be addressed with both creative solutions such as on-demand buses and food delivery and more obvious ones, namely ensuring fair and livable income to provide the choice and ability of mothers to select the most appropriate transportation for their family.
Photo: Sean Foster on Unsplash
