Commentary - The case for more comprehensive data on household food insecurity

As awareness of the population health importance of household food insecurity and its relation to public policy decisions grows, interest in food insecurity statistics is burgeoning at the provincial, municipal, and regional levels. The publicly available data on its prevalence are insufficient to sup port stakeholders' interests and needs for timely, locally relevant information. Several jurisdictions fail to mea sure food insecurity when its inclu sion on the Canadian Community Health Survey is optional. We recommend mandatory mea surement annually, with routine reporting of the total number of persons living in food insecure households and marginal food insecurity counted as part of food insecurity.