“Poverty groups want province to raise food supplement” |
| Poverty groups want province to raise food supplement Posted: 10 Mar 2011 04:06 PM PST Ontario anti-poverty activists are pushing the provincial government to invest in a $100-a-month healthy food supplement for social assistance recipients. At a "Put Food in the Budget" rally Thursday in front of the Queen's Park building that houses the finance ministry, dozens of activists called for the measure to be included in the upcoming spring budget. Anglican Bishop Linda Nicholls, speaking on behalf of 80 parishes representing over 30,000 Anglicans, said the deficit-plagued government doesn't have to necessarily spend more but rather should adjust its priorities to ensure the poor have enough to eat. An estimated 400,000 Ontarians rely on food banks, both those who are on social assistance and the working poor. Nicholls said she was one of many prominent Ontarians who attempted to live on the "poverty diet" provided by food banks. "I was shocked at how quickly within a day or two you began to feel not well. No fresh fruit. No fresh vegetables," Nicholls said. Tracy Mead, a social assistance recipient and member of the South Riverdale Health and Strength Action Group in Toronto, said the support payments don't go far enough to buy fresh food. While she doesn't want to live off carbohydrates and sodium-saturated canned foods, she doesn't have a choice, she said. "The food bank gives you enough food for three days, but the money from social assistance runs out in one week," she said. "It's stressful and energy-consuming to be constantly worrying over where your next meal will come from. I want to eat every day just like you do." Ontario has a special diet allowance for people on social assistance with diagnosed conditions such as diabetes. However, the program is being overhauled as of April 1 following complaints that it was being widely abused. A $100-a-month supplement, as proposed by activists, would go to all recipients of welfare and disability supports. Rebecca MacKenzie, a spokesperson for Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur, said her ministry has launched a review that is looking at all aspects of support programs. "This review is the first step in developing a concrete action plan that will make social assistance better at getting people into jobs, easier to understand and work better with other federal, provincial and municipal programs," MacKenzie said. However, the review is not scheduled to be completed until 2012, after the next budget and election. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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