Roy L Hales/ Cortes CUrrents - Food security is a big issue on Cortes Island. There has been papers, studies and round table discussions, but as the Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) COVID recovery coordinator, Filipe Figueira has to deal with practical solutions. Specifically, what projects can CCEDA achieve in a year?He recently sat down with Cortes Currents in a wide ranging discussion about the first steps towards food security that touched upon local farmers, the food bank, meals on wheels and food storage. Along the way, Figueira also touched upon longer range questions, like how a food hub would work within the island’s local economy. According to the Strathcona Community Health Network’s 2019 profile, Cortes Island’s median household after-tax income is $20,000 less than the Strathcona Regional District average. The Strathcona Housing needs Assessment states that close to a quarter of the Cortes Island children and youth under the age of 17 are living in households whose income is below the poverty line.“That data is now old, it's 2018,” responded Figueira. “Housing costs have increased significantly since then. Inflation has increased significantly since then and I think the need is going to be grow greater over the next couple of years, post-COVID I think we're facing a situation where there's more people who are likely to be food insecure going forward.”The challenges are complex: people who are food insecure; the stigma attached to reaching out for help; local food producers competing with imported goods that have a fraction of the production; rising food costs; being able to respond in emergency situations. Figueira said housing costs for some of the rural poor have now risen to as much as 80% of their disposable income. “That's only going to increase, which means people have less money to feed themselves. They have to make difficult choices and it becomes a real poverty trap where they can't really move forward,” he explained. Figueira added, “There's been some fantastic efforts in the past on Cortes to address food insecure folks. The food bank has been running on a volunteer basis for 20 years with some sterling work by Samantha Statton.Then we've got some new initiatives like meals on wheels, some wonderful work being done by Desta Beattie in family support, but I feel that the true need is bigger than is really being served and we've got the resources to serve.”CCEDA identified some easy steps towards food security:thanks to a $9,000 grant from the Strathcona food hub, they purchased three large upright freezers - which makes it possible for the food bank and meals on wheels to store large amounts of food.CCEDA is working together with Linnaea Farm to help the Cortes Island food bank become a member of Food Banks BC. As Linnaea is already a registered charity, this association could spare the food bank from all of the paper work and organizational changes needed to obtain charitable status. If they succeed, a whole new level of funding could become available.“These are pretty easy wins, and I think that's the first step in this food security thing,” said Figueira.