/ Food security

Healthy food for a stronger Canada

• Jesse Rosenberg and Kwame McKenzie
Woman in yellow sweater shopping for healthy food in a grocery store

Access to affordable, good food is a health equity issue. Immediate action is needed in Canada. Policy leaders must take measures to ensure that nutritious, healthy food is affordable for everyone in Canada.

This policy brief provides recommendations to the Government of Canada to address the rising cost of essential foods, improve health, and build local agriculture and supply lines.

The brief reflects advice received from stakeholders and advocates during a consultation on an earlier Wellesley Institute policy brief. All agree. We must approach the goal of affordable, nutritious food for all in a new way.

Healthy food for a stronger CanadaDownload the policy brief
Jesse Rosenberg

Jesse Rosenberg

Jesse Rosenberg is a legal and policy professional with political and policy experience in the fields of health, labour and justice. Director of Policy at the Wellesley Institute, Jesse previously held leadership roles with the government of Ontario and the Ontario College of Trades. He has extensive experience and expertise in stakeholder relations and legislative and regulatory development and analysis. He holds a Bachelor of Humanities from Carleton University and a Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall.

Kwame McKenzie

Kwame McKenzie

Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of Wellesley Institute, which works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the Greater Toronto Area. A practicing psychiatrist, he also holds positions as a full Professor at the University of Toronto and as the Director of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). As an international expert on the social causes of illness and the development of equitable social policy and health systems, Dr. McKenzie has advised health, housing, education and social services ministers in Canada and the U.K. and has authored more than 260 peer reviewed papers and six books. He is a member of the National Advisory Council on Poverty, and recently co-chaired Canada’s Expert Task Force on Substance Use. He has also worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization. Dr. McKenzie has been a columnist for The Guardian and The Times and a presenter for BBC Radio, and he is regularly published in the Toronto Star.