About the story: Milo is 14 year old boy who hates vegetable soup, and his complaint sparks an in-depth discussion between him and his mom about food insecurity in his community.

Milo could smell it from his bedroom.

"Yuck, vegetable soup!!!", he huffed to himself as he made his way towards the kitchen "Mom, "he complained", why do we have to eat vegetable soup AGAIN, you made it last month, I want pizza".

Milo's mother gestured towards his chair, and gently said, "sit down please. We are very fortunate to have enough nutritious food to eat", She continued, "and there are many families who do not have the same privilege".

Milo slid into his chair and asked, curiously, "What do you mean mom? Doesn't everyone have enough food to eat?"

"Unfortunately no, Milo" His mother replied, "one in ten of those who live in New Brunswick face the reality of food insecurity, meaning they do not enough variety or quantity of food to eat.1 " She continued, "When we go to the grocery store, I use the money I earn from working to pay for our food, but for some families, they do not have enough leftover after paying the bills to also buy enough food for the family."

Milo thought about it for a minute, and asked,

"What happens when someone doesn't have enough food?"

"Well," His mother said, "Without eating enough healthy foods like vegetables and meat, your body is not able to grow strong and healthy, and you are at risk for getting sick more often.2 Also, many foods that are cheaper to buy are highly processed like hamburgers, Kraft Dinner, and sugary cereal." She finished her thought, "and a lot of foods that they sell at the grocery store are not even grown in New Brunswick, or even Canada"

"Have we always eaten food that was grown far away?" Milo asked

"Not always," His mother responded, "many people use to grow most of their own food, or buy it from a local farmer."

"Milo, now that you know a little bit about what food insecurity is, why do you think this is an important topic to know and talk about?" His mother asked him

" Well, because food is something everyone needs to grow big and healthy, and also out of my ten friends, that means at least one of them may not have enough to eat at home."

"Those are really good reasons!" She praised him, "One I think of is that if we actively care about making sure everyone has enough to eat, we can let our mayor and government know that we want changes to be made that support local farmers and ensure that the families in our community will be well nourished. "

"Like you said mom, we go to the store to buy food when we need it, why can others just not do the same?" Milo inquired

"Well, there are multiple causes to food insecurity, like importing food or lack of government policy that supports local farmers, but I believe the main, root cause of food insecurity is poverty.3 The money they have coming in, is not enough to cover their expenses for everyday living and still be able to get groceries like they want. So they are left with a choice, buy healthy food or pay their rent and bills" She said solemnly.

Milo was trying to get it all straight, "So, since we stopped buying most of our food locally, and now have it brought in from other countries, we are paying more for food that is not as fresh, and because its more expensive to buy the healthier imported food, some people can only get the cheaper food that is not healthy"

"That's right!" His mother answered, "A contributing factor that make things tricky, is that someone can get a full time job at minimum wage, but they are only earning about 1750$ a month, and to properly feed a family of four you need to use almost half of that amount in groceries. Also, those who receive social assistance from the government can be paid as little as 650$. So many families do not have enough money left over to buy enough food for themselves and their families, let alone healthy food.4"

Milo piped up and shared his comparison "So that's like when you give me my 20$ allowance and then telling me to pay 15$ for rent, and only have the last 5 to for comic books, but the nice comic books are usually 10$, so I have to compromize and buy a cheaper version comic"

"Exactly" His mother beamed