Food Insecurity

Food insecurity can be defined as access to fresh, healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant sources of food. Food, or the lack of food thereof, serves as a proxy for the health of a population, and thus their quality of life. The access of healthy food choices therefore has stark mental and physical health broad implications. High food insecurity has been associated with key negative health outcomes, such as risk factors for children’s health and educational outcomes, long term adverse consequences for overall health of children, maternal depression and health status, mental health conditions, subsequent weight gain, poor sleep outcomes, chronic disease, and suicide ideation.