The purpose of this research project is to understand the reality and experiences of Francophones living with food insecurity in the Maritime Provinces. This study serves as a complement to an extension of the project “Portrait de la sécurité alimentaire communautaire au Nouveau-Brunswick” (“Portrait of community food security in New Brunswick”) (Pépin-Filion et al., 2016). The study conducted under the auspices of that project addressed public policies and the approaches adopted by front-line workers to promoting food security in various rural and urban contexts in New Brunswick’s linguistic communities.

In the present study, we sought to understand the reality of Francophones in the Maritime Provinces who are experiencing food insecurity and strategies they use to cope with this challenge. It complements the former study both by extending the territory covered by the analysis and by considering the viewpoint of the persons experiencing some form of food insecurity. It will assist in providing a better understanding of the experiences associated with situations of food insecurity and, where applicable, an overview of how the strategies and resources put in place by various actors in the food sector help to reduce food insecurity among the persons affected and how these strategies are aligned to the means that these persons use to reduce their own food insecurity.

The issue of food insecurity has been subject to only very limited study with respect to Francophone minority communities. In addition to focusing on the Francophone population, we sought with the present study to determine whether language was an issue for Francophones in addition to food insecurity.

Report (in French only)
Summary (in English)