Why Food Charity Won’t Solve Canada’s Hunger Problem
Posted: 10/18/2013 12:49 pm
A throne speech may cause great anticipation for some, but unless you are considered “middle class” or a consumer, this speech was not made for you. Presented in the same week as World Food Day (Oct, 16) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (Oct. 17), it was not unreasonable to think that there may have been reference to two of the largest pressing social challenges millions of people in Canada face, but addressing food security and poverty are not key themes in the governments vision for the next few years.
There is no love lost for anti-poverty advocates who didn’t expect any big announcements for poverty in the throne speech considering Canada’s recent rejection of recommendations by the United Nations to develop strategies to combat poverty, homelessness and food security. In September, the Canadian government formally responded to recommendations made by members of the UN Human Rights Council as part of a review of Canada’s human rights record. A number of countries pointed to national strategies as solutions to poverty and its related challenges, as well as an important step for Canada to fulfill international commitments to economic and social rights such as the right to housing and to food.
What was most difficult to swallow was Canada’s reasoning for denying the most vulnerable in society leadership on these persistent social ills, and that was because they believed that current federal and provincial programs and policies were already in place to adequately address these issues. A pretty unbelievable statement considering what we know: between 3-4 million people are living in poverty, 200,000 people are visibly homeless, and over a million faced homelessness or were housing insecure (paying more than 30% of their rent on shelter costs) this year. Even worse is the number of people without sufficient access to food – 3.9 million.
Food insecurity is not as simple as being hungry, it encompasses experiencing fear about not having enough food to eat, to skipping food for an entire day.
A portion of these people head to food banks, which have seen overall visits rise in the past few years to the current level of nearly 900,000 visits each month. If the government thinks that food charity constitutes ‘doing something’ about food security, they need to think again.
Individuals have a right to food and struggle to access, produce or acquire adequate meals because of low-income levels, poor wages, high housing and childcare costs, and increasing costs of living in general. Breaking down the recent food banks numbers shows that 52 per cent of people visiting are on social assistance and 12 per cent of families are currently working. People do not have enough money to eat. This is not simply a food problem; this is a poverty problem.
To focus on food charity is to ignore the root of the problem. Yes, people need access to emergency food in tough times – that is why food banks were created – but over 30 years later food banks have boomed and their numbers steadily increased. Ending hunger is not about charity, it is about justice and respect for human rights.
This year on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Dignity for All: the campaign for a poverty-free Canada, collaborated with food bank volunteers to say enough is enough. It is time to look beyond food banks and get a national poverty plan in place. In 12 cities across Canada volunteers took the streets over lunch hour to hand out 10,000 brown bags with food for thought and a postcard they could send the Prime Minister signaling their support for a national poverty action plan.
Groups such as Campaign 2000, Parkdale Food Bank and Freedom 90 – a group of grandmothers who volunteer at food banks and want to see solutions to the root causes of hunger – joined together to send a clear message:
Food charity is not the solution to hunger. A federal poverty plan that considers housing, childcare, food security and incomes is necessary to ensure people have enough to eat and feed their families.
Salvation Army set to launch food drive
By Rob Gowan, Sun Times, Owen Sound
Wednesday, October 2, 2013 3:07:53 EDT PM
Consistently high demand has the Owen Sound Salvation Army Food Bank hoping for a strong Thanksgiving Food Drive.
“We are certainly at the lowest point we have ever seen our food shelves at,” said Alice Wannan, the Owen Sound Salvation Army’s community and family services co-ordinator. “Primarily that is because numbers did not drop during the summer. Normally we see a decline in the number of families that use the food bank during the summer and we did not experience that at all.”
The Salvation Army branch is kicking off its 27th annual Thanksgiving Food Drive on Friday. The drive runs until Oct. 14, when organizers hope to collect about 28,000 pounds of food.
Wannan said the shelves were virtually bare prior to this past Saturday when a stuff the ambulance event was held at Zehrs where about 1,500 pounds of food and over $400 in cash donations was collected.
In Owen Sound in the month of August, the Salvation Army assisted 667 individuals with food , of which 168 were under the age of 18, which works out to almost $38,000 worth of food given to families during the month.
“It’s a staggering number when you think of that,” said Wannan. “As a Salvation Army we would not be able to do that without the community support.”
Wannan said the need is slightly higher than last year, but it is the consistency of the need that is depleting the Salvation Army’s supplies.
“Normally we have different times of the year where it seems to let up and we have a bit of a lull in the numbers where it kind of lets us build up our food supplies,” said Wannan. “We just have not seen that. Numbers consistently seem to be from 650 to where we have had up to 745 individuals in a month.”
Wannan attributes the need to the higher cost of living people are experiencing.
“The rents. the heats and hydros, the cost of kids going to school, are what we are consistently hearing from families are impacting their abilities to put money away for food,” said Wannan.
The organization depends on the Thanksgiving Food Drive to get its shelved stocked for the busy holiday season and carries the food bank through most of the year.
“The Thanksgiving Food Drive is the only food drive the Salvation Army runs throughout the year,” said Wannan.
This year marks the first year where the Salvation Army will not be distributing paper bags through the newspaper. This year the organization has opted to make people aware of the food drive drive through a pamphlet that will be included in the weekly store flyer package.
“We wanted to make that transition to be a little more environmentally friendly,” said Wannan. “We have been sending out approximately 13,000 bags every year. We get a good number of those back, but we certainly understand there are a lot that aren’t coming back and are probably going to the landfill site.”
Wannan said the pamphlets are also more cost effective and they can be kept and posted on peoples’ fridge as a reminder. The pamphlet includes details about where food can be dropped off and the items most needed, including peanut butter, Kraft Dinner, juice, canned beans and pasta and soup. The pamphlets are also being distributed by local churches and schools.
“By the beginning of our Thanksgiving campaign we hope to have about 20,000 of them out,” said Wannan. “We are hoping to get the word out to more people in the community, we just won’t be using the paper bags.”
People can drop off food at local grocery stores, businesses and churches during the duration of the food drive. On Oct. 10 and 11 there will be a Thrifty truck in the Zehrs parking lot where food can be dropped off. The truck will be in the Bayshore Broadcasting parking lot on Oct. 12.
OSHaRE holds soup lunch fundraiser
By Rob Gowan, Sun Times, Owen Sound
Friday, September 27, 2013 2:56:40 EDT PM
A growing need to feed people in the community has the Owen Sound Hunger and Relief Effort using new ways to raise funds.
A soup luncheon held at the bingo hall downtown on Friday is one of those ways.
“This is just new for us and we hope to make it an annual event,” said Peggy Moulaison, director of operations with OSHaRE, adding the reason for the fundraiser is to both raise funds and create awareness about the organization.
“A lot of people still don’t know about us and that there is an organization that is committed to helping those in need in Owen Sound.”
OSHaRE is a non-profit volunteer and donation driven soup kitchen that serves dinners Monday through Friday in the basement of the former Knox United Church, now Harmony Centre, in Owen Sound.
Since it started operating in February the number of people it has served nightly has grown from about 40 to more than 100.
“We are having 100 people a night right now and it is very, very busy,” said Moulaison. “We are up to 100 people and we had 115 people last night and it requires us to have a lot of food, a lot of prep, a lot of volunteers.”
Moulaison said the committee based their budget on serving between 60 and 80 people a night.
The organization’s $105,000 annual budget, which includes staff, groceries, rent and utilities, is entirely dependent on donations.
“It doesn’t seem to be slowing down any, so I am not to sure where that is going to take us,” said Moulaison, who added some nights they have actually ran out of food during the dinners, which run from 5 to 6 p.m.
“Sometimes at night if we run out of food, which we have, we will make sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches and we will heat up soup because we have that as a backup,” said Moulaison. “We don’t want anybody to go away hungry so we will do that.”
Moulaison said the local heart and stroke association held a soup luncheon for a number of years, but haven’t had one in recent years and she felt it was a good fit with OSHaRE.
The event was held at the bingo hall because of it is centrally located. Moulaison hopes to hold the event at the Harmony Centre in the future so that members of the public get a chance to see the facilities OSHaRE uses and get a better feel of what the group is all about.
By about 11:30 a.m. on Friday about 50 people were sitting down to a lunch of soup donated by local restaurants, a bun, vegetables and dessert. Moulaison hoped about $2,500 would be raised from the event for OSHaRE, which she said has been getting great support from the community.
“The community has been very, very generous,” said Moulaison. “We have been getting a lot of food donations and a lot of monetary donations. People have been bringing their fresh vegetables from their garden and it has been very, very wonderful.”