Category: community / civic engagement

Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

Wayne
Tell us about your living situation.
“I’m receiving ODSP. I’m grateful for the support, but it also leaves me living below poverty line. Eating healthy for the entire month is really challenging, in not impossible. In the last ten days, I’ve been scrambling around, because I’m out of food. Food is the number one
issue in my life. the money we get is glaringly not enough.”

How much money do you spend on food?
“Half of my money goes to food. for the first few weeks I’m spending
about $100.00, and then it runs out and I have to use food banks.”

Do you ever use food banks drop-in meal programs?
“I quality for one food bank in my catchment area [where you can get an emergency 3-day food supply once a month]. I’ve dropped into six other food banks, but they only let you go once if you’re not in their catchment area. And when you do to the food bank you’re already hungry, so you eat it all in 24 hours. When my food runs out in the
last week of the month, I have to come to the drop-in meals at The Stop every day for breakfast and lunch.”

Describe what it’s like to eat on your budget.
“It’s fine for two weeks at the beginning of the month. And then when it runs out it’s scary. Fear. Desperation. Just scrambling around trying to find something to eat.”

Where do you get your food? How often do you shop?
“I go to No Frills or Price Choppers, looking for deals. I shop 2-3 times a month.”

What factors influence what food you eat?
“I want to eat food I like, healthy food. I exercise and try to maintain my good health, but at the end of the month it’s impossible. The food I get at the food bank has no protein- just junk carbs. I gained about 5 pounds this week, from all the crap I had to eat.

What does food security mean to you?
“Food security means not going hungry. Food insecurity means: I’m hungry and I don’t have anything to eat. And I’m out of ideas of where to get it.”

What do you think the government should do to address food security?
“Increase the amount of money to people on social assistance. Or just increase the amount of food money. Food coupons for No Frills to food vouchers or something- anything. They have to ensure that we have enough money for food.”

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Linda Chamberlain
Tell us about yourself.
“I’m Linda Chamberlain. I work part-time as a Peer Counselor at CAMH. I’m on
ODSP but they take out half of my check because I work, and the other half goes
to rent. I moved into my home in TCHC (Toronto Community Housing) in 1996-
before that I was living on the street and in hospitals for over 30 years. Just
having a roof over my head has helped me so much, given me so much courage,
I feel like I can do anything now.”

How much do you spend per week on food?
“I don’t go by the week. At the beginning of the month, I pay my rent, my hydro,
and my phone bill. After that, I, maybe, have $100.00 leftover, and whatever is
left I use for hygienic products and food. by the end of the month, I have
absolutely no money left, and I am living completely off the food bank.
I am one step behind on my bills all the time. I used the food stipend you gave
me for this photo project to pay my late hydro bill. There’s never enough money
to buy food.

Describe what it’s like to eat on your budget.
“I eat potatoes- it’s all I can afford. In the morning I have fried potatoes with
onions. For lunch I have boiled potato dumplings with flour and paprika- that
gives it some flavor, and they fill you up. For dinner I have mashed potatoes maybe
I can put a can of pineapples or corn on that if I get one from the food
bank. I get full on the food I eat but it’s all starch. I can’t go to bed with my stomach
growling, so I eat cookies from the food bank before I go to bed. I’m diabetic and
that makes my sugar go up, but it’s the only food I have, and it’s the worst thing
in the world to go to sleep with your stomach growling. If I could bring my sugar down, the doctors said I might be able to reverse my diabetes, but if I don’t turn it around, they said it will kill me. They’ll pay for pills to get my sugar down, but they won’t give me any money for healthy food. it would be so nice just to have real food- all I want is lettuce and some vegetables.”

Do you ever access food banks or drop-in meal programs?
“I started a food bank in my building four year ago. Every two weeks we get a
delivery, and anyone from the building can come down and take whatever they
need. But the food bank just gives junk, there’s never any healthy food, no
vegetables. There were three kinds of icing and cake mix at the food bank today,
but no milk or eggs to make a cake with it. They give us syrups and vinegars, but
never any food to put them on.”

Where do you get your food? How often do you shop?
“Every month I buy a bag of potatoes, some onions, a bag of flour. Almost
everything else I have I get from the food bank downstairs. Occasionally I try to
afford something in Chinatown.”

What do you think the government should do to address food security?
“We don’t need more food banks- all they have is junk food. We need money to
buy our own food. They’re paying a lot more money on our hospital bills because
all of us are getting sick off of this diet. They haven’t raised our checks in years,
even though the prices of food and rent keep going up and up. Food costs more
now, but we don’t have any more money, so we just don’t eat.”

To learn more about this issue or to get more involved, visit www.thestop.org

Students are encourage to complete the Do the Math Campaign

What the World Eats, Part 1, What’s on family dinner tables around the globe? Photographs by Peter Menzel from the book “Hungry Planet”

There are two social assistance programs in Ontario. One is called Ontario Works, and one is called Ontario Disability Support Program.

What is Ontario Works?
Ontario (OW) is the income support program of last resort for people without paid employment. It is an emergency program intended to support people when
something goes seriously wrong in their lives, and to help ensure that they do not fall through the cracks. Because of the high cost of childcare in Ontario, some
single parent families are forced onto OW until their children are school age.

Monthly income for a single person in Ontario Works (which must cover rent, food and all other expenses): $572.00

What is Ontario Disability Support Program?
Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is an income support program for people who are unable to maintain full‐time employment die to a medical condition. For
people with disabilities in Ontario, ODSP is often the primary source of income for many years.

Monthly income for a single person in Ontario
Disability Benefits: $1020

Recent History of social Assistance in Ontario
In 1995, the provincial government under Mike Harris cut social assistance rates
by 22% and then froze them, until the Progressive Conservative Part was voted
out of office in 2003. Today, these cuts, combined with increases to the cost of
living, mean that welfare benefits have been eroded by approximately 40% since
1995.

Under the current Liberal government, social assistance benefits have been
increased incrementally each year. However, according to economist Jim
Stanford, even with the announcement of a 2% increase to social assistance in
spring of 2008. Ontario’s most disadvantaged citizens are still further behind
where they were when the McGuinty government was first erected in 2003.

In 2004, anti-poverty groups and health provider in Ontario, concerned by the
devastating health issue faced by people on social assistance without enough
income, began to organize to fight for people’s health. They mobilized to help
people on social assistance access a little known benefit called the Special Diet
Allowance. The Special Diet Allowance is a benefit that provides additional
assistance to people who require a special diet as the result of a medical
condition. To quality, people on ODSP or OW must already be sick and have the
feed for a diet prescribed by a qualified medical practitioner.

While some people continue to receive Special Diet Benefits to treat conditions
for very serious medical conditions, the government has taken steps to change
the program and limit its benefits. These changes are currently being challenged
before the Human Rights Tribunal. Meanwhile, a; recipients of social assistance
continue to be at risk of illness due to poverty.

People who experience chronic food insecurity and a lack of access to a healthy
diet from numerous negative efforts on their health, including higher risk of
chronic illness, depression, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
This is why public health units across Ontario are asking the government to
increase social assistance rates to begin to address chronic cycles of poverty in
this province and prevent sickness.

As a first step, the campaign to Put Food in the Budget is asking for $100.00
monthly increase as a kind of healthy food supplement for all adults on social
assistance. Public health officials view this amount as a down payment toward
establishing adequate income supports that are based on the real cost of living
and that enable people to purchase healthy food.

Where can I find out more information about this?

To learn more about this issue or to get more involved, visit www.thestop.org