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Ottawa Public Health’s The Price of Eating Well found that seniors who receive Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement may be left with only $180 at the end of the month after paying rent and buying food.

There is a link between low income and “food insecurity.”

Low-income families have to pay fixed costs like rent first. It means that food is often one of the only items in the household budget that can be trimmed.

At the same time, neighbourhoods where residents have to travel a long way to get fresh food are becoming known as “food deserts.”

The winning New Leaf project, to be selected this fall, has to be self-sustaining — and it has to show that it actually has made a difference by the end of 2015, says Pagani.

“We are very serious about moving the needle on this issue,” he says. “One of the criteria for any eligible organization is that they share information about how they are progressing. We don’t want to be the flavour of the month. ”

Pagani says there are already some “really cool things” happening on the food insecurity front in Ottawa and elsewhere. In Chicago, for example, a city bus crammed with fresh produce makes the rounds in low-income neighbourhoods. Other cities are planting urban orchards, or building large planters for residents to grow vegetables.

In Ottawa, this will be the third year for “pop up” Good Food Markets, like the one held in a community garden on Nanny Goat Hill at the corner of Bronson Avenue and Laurier Avenue on Saturday.