International students wait to be served dinner inside of the langar hall in the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat in Brampton, Ont., on Dec. 22, 2021.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
When Shivam Aggarwal was a student, he spent two years consuming the same thing for breakfast: Tim Hortons’ French vanilla coffee. “It was delicious, cheap, quick and gave me enough sugar and caffeine to last the whole day,” he recalls.
Mr. Aggarwal, 23, now knows better than to centre his diet around a Tim’s cup, but remembers those as lean times. On most days back then, he said, he would skip lunch.
“When you’re a student and you have to work to make a living, you simply don’t have the time to buy groceries and cook. On most days, you skip meals. I was lucky that I worked at a pizza store and my employer would let us eat there. So I was assured of dinner, at the very least.”
A small study recently released by Ryerson University examining food insecurity among international students indicates that Mr. Aggarwal’s experience isn’t uncommon. Researchers spoke to 30 students from India studying at colleges in the Greater Toronto Area to better understand the prevalence of food insecurity among international students, including their access to and relationship with food. (The Indian international students were chosen as the study group because, since 2016, students from India have made up the largest group of international students at Canadian educational institutions.)
The researchers found food insecurity was a major issue among the international students they interviewed, largely because of the pressure to work while studying full-time, the lack of institutional supports and even discrimination in housing and other settings.
Dr. Sutama Ghosh, associate professor in Ryerson’s Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, was one of the four researchers behind the study. She said coffee – and Tim Hortons’ French vanilla in particular – was one of the things most of the students reported consuming, noting the calories and caffeine allowed them to skip meals altogether while juggling work and school or simply just trying to save money on food.
International students Harpreet Kaur, left, and Jasleen Kaur eat and drink inside of the langar hall in the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
According to Statistics Canada, immigrants are more likely than non-immigrants to be food insecure. In 2019, 15.4 per cent of recent immigrants (those who moved 10 years ago or less) were either moderately or severely food insecure. They remained likely to be food insecure through the pandemic. While immigrants make up around 21 per cent of the Canadian population, they made up 26 per cent of Canadians who were food insecure.
According to the Ryerson report, an international student at a community college in Ontario pays $18,000 a year in tuition fees, on average. “Many students have a socio-economic obligation to send money back home since their parents have spent a lot of money to send them to Canada” to study, Dr. Ghosh said. This means that they are often on a shoestring budget – and the first casualty of that financial stress is often their diet.
Sagar, one of the respondents in the study who was only identified by his first name, told researchers, “I wish I could buy whatever food I want, but I can’t. After paying for tuition, rent, transportation, phone [and] internet, I have very little left. My goal is always to keep the expenses to a minimum and earn more.”
Between going to class and working multiple jobs, students also simply don’t have the time to cook meals. Harpinder Singh, a student at Brampton’s Sheridan College, works two shifts: one at a gas station and another at a bakery.
“I usually have some coffee with a slice of bread for breakfast. When I have an evening shift, I defrost frozen meals in the morning and pack some food before leaving the house. But when I have two shifts and class, I end up skipping lunch. This is something every student does – we don’t even think much about it,” he said in an interview.
Housing is a factor, too. While colleges in downtown Toronto have far more food options around their campuses, a lack of affordable housing in the city means students usually have to commute long distances to where they live, again leaving little time to cook at home.
Discrimination in the rental market can also play into students’ food insecurity, the researchers found. Several of those interviewed for the study said they had been denied housing because of their background. Satkaran, another study respondent, noted: “As soon as the landlords figured out that we were from India, they asked, ‘Will you cook curry?’ And right then, we could tell they will not give us the place.”
To overcome some of these barriers, many international students from India often end up living together and supporting one another, including splitting tasks such as grocery shopping and cooking. When they can afford it, others may take advantage of tiffin services that deliver home-cooked Indian meals to their door, or are able to join their landlord and their families for meals – though the related food costs can sometimes be rolled into their monthly rent.
Community groups also help meet the growing need for food supports. In Brampton, Ont., home to thousands of international students from India, food banks and langars (community kitchens run by local gurdwaras) play a big role in reaching food-insecure students.
“A large chunk of the people who come here are students,” said Harmanpreet Singh, a volunteer who oversees the langar at the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat in Brampton. “They often stop by on their way to work, offer their respects at the gurdwara and go on with their days. This is one of the few places where they can get rice, roti, lentils and vegetables in a meal for no cost.”
Many students were requesting food during pandemic lockdowns, Mr. Singh said. “We didn’t stop the langar, but instead of having people dine in the hall, we made packed meals that people could pick up. I think students prefer eating at the gurdwara because unlike food banks, there is no shame attached.”
The Ryerson study noted that international students don’t always initially realize that they are experiencing food insecurity. While female respondents were more aware of the problem than male students, they were equally dismissive – many have come to consider skipping meals a rite of passage, something that all international students have to go through. Many only recognize the extent of their food insecurity once they leave their student lives behind and fully join the work force.
Harmanpreet Singh, a volunteer at the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat.Duane Cole/The Globe and Mail
Now that he’s no longer in college, Mr. Aggarwal is finally acknowledging the effect food insecurity had on him at the time. He recalls how the popular – and cheap – Maggi brand of instant noodles that remind him of his childhood in Punjab had gone from a comfort-food favourite to a means of scraping by in Canada. Now Mr. Aggarwal, whose finances and nutrition are in a healthier place, can enjoy them again as an occasional snack – not a full meal.
“I no longer need it to survive,” he said. “Only now do I realize how much damage I was doing to my body when I was a student. Never again.”
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Uday Rana