OAFB in the News 2008
The Wasaga Beach Ministerial Food Bank has seen a steady increase in the number of registrants in September and October and organizers expect the trend to continue.
The response from readers This Week received regarding a recent article I wrote about young, single mothers struggling to make ends meet surprised me. Responses ran the gamut - from people wanting to help the women featured, to angry retorts about glorifying young mothers and those who abuse social assistance programs.
What this long-awaited plan, entitled Breaking The Cycle: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, tells us is that governments are back in business, trickle-up economics is the policy du jour and social movements have become a critical ingredient in forging robust policy in a recessionary era.
Two years ago, Carol Gardner was dropping off toys for the Project SHARE holiday drive. Now, she is one of the people lining up at the Niagara Falls food bank.
In a symbiotic relationship, we are too often sick because we’re poor, and poor because we’re sick. Just as money to pay the rent can be hard to come by when chronic ill health is an issue, health can be hard to come by when paying the rent is a constant stress and good nutrition always just out of reach. (Thanks to Judy Graves and Graham Riches for their article “Let Them Eat Starch,†for reminding me about the extraordinary quality of food I sometimes take for granted.)
The local food bank is experiencing a sharp spike in demand this holiday season with the number of families seeking assistance already up 40 per cent from the same time last year, a figure the facility's co-ordinator expects to continue to rise beyond Christmas.
Anti-poverty activists are cheering Ontario's ambitious $1.4 billion plan to cut child poverty by 25 per cent in five years, but vow to ensure the Liberal government lives up to its promise.
In the shadow of the federal political firestorm that rage in Ottawa Thursday, the province of Ontario quietly introduced its long-awaited poverty reduction strategy, including $300 million in new initiatives.
Tough economic times and the rising price of basic necessities are prompting more people to turn to food banks, says a report released this week.
The Ontario Association of Food Banks estimates if the economy continues to go south, next year there will be 350,000 people in Ontario using the food bank every month -- a record number.
Two years ago, Carol Gardner was dropping toys off for the Project SHARE holiday drive.
The Ontario government will promise today to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent within the next five years – a target activist groups say is critical to a meaningful poverty strategy.
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