Social Policy in Ontario

Food banks are not enough

Posted on December 6, 2014 in Social Security Debates

—

TheStar.com – Opinion/Readers’ Letters – Re: Use of food banks soaring, Dec. 1
Dec 06 2014.   Elaine M. Power / Warren Dalton / Peter Clutterbuck / Shirley Bush / Keith Parkinson / Katharine Schmidt / Keith Nunn / Peter Graefe / Bob Luker / Bryan Charlebois

Most Canadians are horrified by the idea that there are others in this wealthy country who are hungry. Holiday food drives give us easy opportunities to imagine that we doing something about this problem.

Undoubtedly, food banks allow some hungry Canadians to be somewhat less hungry. But research shows that the majority of hungry Canadians never go to a food bank — and even those that do so are still hungry. This doesn’t mean we need to donate more food to food banks. It means that we need to tackle the underlying problem, poverty.

There are countless ways our country would benefit from the elimination of poverty. Importantly, it would save us money in the long term. For every dollar spent in poverty reduction, we would save at least $2. The elimination of poverty would save us about 20 per cent of our health care costs. It would also save us buckets of money in the education and justice systems.

One bureaucratically simple way to do this is a Basic Income Guarantee that would ensure all Canadians have adequate income for basic necessities, including food. A successful poverty elimination plan would see food banks close because of lack of demand.

To show that we really care about making sure that no one goes hungry in Canada, let’s look beyond the holiday “feel good” food drive campaigns and demand that our governments implement a Basic Income Guarantee to eliminate poverty. It will make a better country for all of us.

Elaine M. Power, Associate Professor, Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University
____________

This is a page one story, as it should be, yet on page three we have Stephen Harper (not a hair out of place) in a $150 million photo-op. Ottawa is pledging $150 million to mothers and kids in Senegal.

I’m not against humanitarian foreign aid per se, but as the saying goes, “charity begins at home.” We have, in Ontario, “about 375,000 per month” using food banks. What a pathetic statistic. This is only one province. What are the stats for the other nine? Harper doesn’t seem to care. He is more focused on pushing through the non-environment-friendly Keystone XL pipeline.

In Ontario, we have kids going to school without having breakfast and we expect them to be able to absorb what is being taught? Job-creation is a joke. Part-time jobs, unpaid internships, and contract jobs mean, not only a struggle to provide food and lodging, but the future for these people is grim without benefits and pension plans.

At least the Wynne government is trying to address the latter, with resistance and ridicule from the Harper Conservatives.

It would behoove Harper to worry less about keeping his hair perfectly coiffed for photo-ops and worry more about the people in Canada who are not able to maintain a decent way of life, and who are facing a “food bank future.”

Warren Dalton, Scarborough
___________

Alas, food banks are the new community hubs according to this story, not only providing food to the destitute but a range of other services from child care to employment and housing supports. Ironic, given that the report finds that food banks do not even make a significant dent in hunger across this province.

It is very convenient for government to offload essential services and supports onto the charitable sector and not surprising that the private corporate sector reaps a public relations benefit by donating what amounts to a pittance to the issue of poverty and hunger as well. Much preferable to paying its fair share of taxes for an adequate social safety net.

We need both the public and private sectors to commit to living wages and adequate income support programs, which would eliminate the need for food banks altogether.

Peter Clutterbuck, Toronto
______________

I cannot imagine the utter despair and heartbreak of parents who are unable to give their children enough to eat. My own parents experienced some years of poverty when I was young, but never so drastic that we children lacked food.

It is time to put food in the budget. Some argue that it would be costly, but the far-reaching consequences of hunger in children can cost society far more. Health problems, difficulties learning at school, and lack of energy all affect a child’s future. They may be unable to attend school regularly, have poor grades, become discouraged dropouts and then proceed to street gangs, crime and destruction of the family.

Most of this is preventable. Poverty has increased and so has food bank use. Minimum standards of food and shelter are still out of reach for many. Our children are the future. How can we blight that future by letting them go hungry? It is urgent that the government put food in the budget right now.

Shirley Bush, Toronto
___________

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ideology is that we should rely “on civil society rather than the state to resolve social dilemmas.” But civil society means charities and social dilemmas are things like poverty and hunger.

We can expect, as the Star says, “Poverty reduction efforts floundering” and “Use of food banks soaring” and the inequality gap growing by leaps and bounds to be the norm in Canada, because we have a prime minister who is willing to allow charities, their donors and their volunteers to carry the social burden of hunger and poverty in Canada.

All while he goes on a vote-buying spree with our tax money and giving tax credits to business and the wealthy.

Keith Parkinson, Cambridge
____________

We couldn’t agree more that poverty is the key issue at the root of food insecurity, and that far too many Canadians just don’t make enough money to meet their most basic needs.

Food banks are the first to reaffirm that they are not the solution to this long standing issue – one that existed long before food banks opened. However, until the political will to find a long-term solution is found, food banks are filling a gap by providing essential food support and other services when they are needed the most.

Food banks are incredibly diverse, and it makes little sense to assess their services strictly in terms of the amount of food they provide.

That being said, the figures created by Put Food in the Budget are false and misleading – a single person would receive over 20 pounds of food during a food bank visit; a family of four would receive around 50 pounds of food. This is in addition to other important services that help people get back on their feet.

We would suggest that rather than criticize, organizations could put their efforts toward working together to develop long-term solutions so people in need won’t require these types of services in the future.

Katharine Schmidt, Executive Director, Food Banks Canada, Mississauga
______________

I was shocked to hear the premier promoting support of the food bank on CBC this morning. Our collective responsibility to each other should be exercised through adequate and humane income support, not haphazard charity.

I would like the premier to explain why she thinks that food banks are an answer to anything other than a desperation wrought by the provincial government.

More half-baked and piecemeal programs mostly mean more jobs for bureaucrats. The answers are more straightforward than most want to believe: raise the rates (minimum wage, social assistance), build housing, include dental benefits in OHIP. Get on with it. The government’s so-called poverty reduction strategy is inadequate and unnecessarily complicated.

It’ll even be good for the economy: the rich save, the poor spend, they have no choice.

Keith Nunn, Toronto
_________

It is hard to criticize the efforts of people who volunteer in foodbanks, because they are responding to a crying need. Yet, for all their work, the recent Put Food in the Budget report notes that these banks provide around 9 per cent of people’s food needs, at about $25 per month.

Would it not be more socially efficient to increase minimum wages and social assistance so people could buy their own food, and let the volunteers devote their talents to improving our communities in other ways?

Put otherwise, are we at a stage where government and low-wage employers are using the good intentions of donors and volunteers to shirk their responsibility to ensure people get the food they need to live healthily?

Peter Graefe, Hamilton
__________

It is crucial to the building of social justice in our country to reduce inequality and eliminate poverty. The number of Ontario households using food banks for the first time “skyrocketed” to over 17,000 this year. Over a third of food bank users are children.

But as the report from Put Food in the Budget makes clear despite all the generous volunteer and community effort food banks cannot come close to meeting the need. Nor can they address the underlying issues. Without major increases to social assistance, the minimum wage, and good full-time jobs, poverty will expand, damaging more and more of us.

Gail Nyberg of the Daily Bread Food Bank notes that the Ontario government needs to step up to the plate and implement a stronger hunger and poverty relief plan. “In the meantime,” she added, “I’m not prepared to let kids go to bed hungry.” The question, of course, is how long is that very mean time?

Bob Luker, Toronto
_________

Public sector unions insinuate they need more than the sunshine list crumbs and this premier hands it out. The police stand around holes in the ground, gouging Toronto taxpayers. Non-profits barely serve clients and often chase them away while the province distributes to them largess to supposedly solve social problems.

Thousands of useless rude social workers crowd welfare offices demanding their share while denying the poor winter coats. TCHC has another iceberg beneath them as many of their buildings are ready to be condemned.

Naturally John Tory is not addressing this horror as he prepares for all the sumptuous Christmas dinners he must attend. A Canadian Prime Minister and his wife now wear plastic gloves to greet the public in Senegal whereas Princess Diana used to cuddle them.

Every Saturday night a thousand poor souls gain access to my TCHC building on Sherbourne St. for about seven minutes apiece to buy drugs. Many develop friendships with the security guards.

John Tory will not give the drug dealer apartments to the disabled. Premier Kathleen Wynne all but disallows the disabled access to ODSP and is rumoured to want to cut off the special diet allowance.

The poor can twist in the wind as far as these three are concerned. A lot of these problems can be solved by a guaranteed income for Ontarians.

Bryan Charlebois, Toronto

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/12/06/food_banks_are_not_enough.html >

Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2014 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Social Security Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.