Household Food Insecurity – Perth-Huron –

In November 2022, United Way Perth-Huron’s Social Research & Planning Council designed and implemented a survey to capture the characteristics of food insecurity in Perth County and Huron County, including the municipalities of Stratford and St. Marys. Our goal was to understand the nature and severity of household food insecurity regionally. Specifically, we hoped to investigate food insecurity caused by financial constraints.

We began by noting the 2021 Census showed that 14,320 individuals in Perth and Huron live with low income based on the Low-income measure, after tax (LIM-AT). With this number in mind, we set a target of a 500-person sample size to produce a 5% margin of error (meaning the results might be 5% less or greater than the reality).

Thanks to exhaustive promotion and community efforts, 1,125 surveys in both paper and digital formats were collected and 63% met the inclusion criteria. This report outlines key findings from the analysis of 711 responses from this survey.

*Please note that findings only discuss the portion of our population experiencing food insecurity, not the population as a whole.