I never expected or planned to do what I am doing.
Yet, for the past two years, I may have contributed more to my community than everything I have done in the previous thirty years.
I work with volunteers, organizations, and people who have made it their lives work to make a difference in their community by helping people without voices. People that most of us never see or people that we assume “the government will take care of.”
I assist Food Banks, Community Meal Programs, and Community Gardens. I help to build connections and bring those organizations together to share ideas and solutions and learn about how they can help their communities even more. I also make presentations to inform and educate people about the size and scope of food insecurity in rural Ontario while also correcting myths and misconceptions.
Things to Know
In our region, which encompasses more than 160,000 people, 8,000 square kilometers of farmland, industry, government offices, a nuclear power plant, a host of commercial businesses, and perhaps some of the most incredible tourist areas in the country, one in five of our residents will experience food insecurity this year.
Food insecurity means that people are hungry. They or their families cannot afford to eat properly and/or they are going without food. The important thing to remember is that Food insecurity is just a symptom; it’s a symptom of poverty and the lack of affordable and safe housing.
Canada has enough food to feed everyone. Unfortunately, 58% of all of the food we produce ends up going to landfills where it releases greenhouse gases and contributes to global food waste being the third largest contributor to global warming and climate change. Food is wasted everywhere in the food cycle, from where it is grown all the way to your table. Misinformation and misconceptions are major problems. One common misconception is that few people understand the difference between “Best Before” dates and “Expiry” dates leading to enormous waste. Second Harvest Canada has an excellent tool that is readily accessible to help eliminate us from throwing out perfectly good food, check out their BEST BEFORE TIMETABLE.
Second Harvest is also making a difference through its Food Rescue programs. They provide support for grocery stores, suppliers, and businesses to donate food to organizations that help alleviate food insecurity. These programs unfortunately are hindered by misconceptions, such as fears about liability for the donors. Their website explains the legislation in each province, which protects donors from that liability as well as a host of other facts and useful information. Donors are helping their communities, preventing waste, and saving money because they do not have to pay to dispose of spoiled food. In addition, in every organization, food rescue helps to make a difference and everyone in the organization that I speak to is proud of their company for taking a leadership role.
Food banks do good work. More organizations are making a difference as well. Most people are completely unaware of the contribution of community meal programs. In many rural communities, food banks have limited hours, whereas many community meal programs operate far more often. Not only can the meal program help more days, but they are also better suited to assist with Food Rescue programs because they can prepare and even freeze meals because of the limited remaining shelf life for many of the food rescue items. In our region, the demand for the meal provided by volunteers and staff at meal programs increased by more than 300% and has only continued to grow as the covid emergency has been replaced by the rising costs of housing and inflation.
Hindering the organizations attempting to alleviate and/or eliminate food insecurity is the general misconception that “jobs” will solve the problem. Even before the skyrocketing costs of housing people needed jobs that pay a “living wage.” As a society, we need to realize that government supports need to be adequate to meet the basic needs of the communities that they serve. People in rural communities cannot live on Ontario Works, the Ontario Disability Support Plan, or even on minimum wage. When housing costs more than 100% of someone’s income, no amount of budgeting or a low-paying job will solve their food issues.
Who are the people making a difference?
We are fortunate to have dedicated teams of volunteers to carry the load in our communities. These largely anonymous volunteers are mostly retired people with a strong sense of community. It would just be nice to have more of them. Alleviating food insecurity would be much easier if food banks and meal programs could operate more frequently, at least twice a week, and include more evening times. The ability to access food more easily and more often would benefit those vulnerable people who have jobs and find, for example, being able to attend a food bank Tuesdays between 1 pm and 2 pm almost impossible.
Community gardens play an important role in assisting their communities to alleviate food insecurity. Providing nutritiously dense fruits and vegetables to meal programs and food banks is their contribution. Equally important is the role community gardens can play in bringing people together to work together and build connections as well as by breaking down stigmas.
Community gardens bring diverse groups of people together to build communities. Acknowledging and including lessons from First Nations people as well as the knowledge of new immigrants helps everyone learn new foods and new ways of growing. These organizations bring students together to learn from senior citizens, they are therapeutic to those who lack interaction, and they can teach everyone something about sustainability.
Additionally, in partnership with Food Rescue and foodbanks/meal programs, community gardens can also compost unusable organic donations.
We need more help
We have two issues with food insecurity. We must alleviate the “today” issue of hunger for people who do not have enough food right now in our communities. Food banks and meal programs have been doing that for more than forty years. They are the Band-Aid; they alleviate but do not solve food insecurity. To eliminate food insecurity we must deal with the root causes. Poverty and the lack of affordable and safe housing are the needs that our municipal, provincial, and federal leaders must address. A local municipality cannot say housing is a county problem, they need to take a leadership position and start to address bylaws on population density rules, and they can help fight nimbyism. Provinces can help with funding, processes, and training of more skilled tradespeople to provide workers to build the housing we need. Federal leaders need to appreciate that private sector developers are not the solution to building geared to income housing. To make a difference, all governments must realize as a society we have to ensure that no one gets left behind.
Additionally, all levels of government can support providing a “living wage.” People complain about all of the jobs going unfilled in our communities. Bringing in immigrants to work for low-income wages is not the solution, people in our communities must be able to afford to live in our communities. As a society, we need to appreciate that we need to pay appropriate prices for goods and services to that businesses can pay wages so everyone can afford to live in our communities.
For those people experiencing illnesses and disabilities, we need to ensure that our safety net programs of Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Programs do not perpetuate poverty. As a society, we should provide a sufficient amount of money to ensure their needs are met with dignity and respect. Too many people in our society believe that a “job” is the solution to many of our social issues, those people need to change their perspective and appreciate that certain illnesses, physical and mental, preclude many disabled people from ever being able to hold a job.
In each election, we must ask our leaders how they plan to take action to address these needs. To do more than simply alleviate food insecurity, our leaders need to take steps to eliminate poverty and provide enough geared-to-income housing so that wait times are measured in days and weeks instead of years.
Things you should know.
In our community, through organizations such as the Poverty Task Force, volunteers, government representatives, bureaucrats, and other people are coming together to coordinate, connect, and take action. They work on issues such as housing, harm reduction, transportation, income support, as well as food insecurity. For example, the Food Security Group meets biweekly weekly to discuss common problems, share solutions, and learn about other organizations and services that can assist their communities. A website called FOODBRUCEGREY.COM, which was created by NPX, brings together the data from the front-line organizations so that anyone interested in food insecurity can see current real data 24/7.
There is a misconception that only people experiencing homelessness use food banks and meal programs. Food insecurity can affect anyone, seniors, children, single parents, people working, you, me, at any time anyone can be put into a position where they need help.
I have learned that what I thought I knew about food insecurity before I started this job was wrong. As a business person, I was wrong about minimum wage and a living wage. I was wrong about how widespread the issue was. I recognize now the interaction that stigma and misconceptions play in keeping people from realizing the size and scope of this issue.
The size and scope of food insecurity or hunger is a very real and a very large problem in rural Ontario. This two-year chapter in my life has allowed me to work with so many unique and dedicated people all of whom deserve as much praise and recognition as we can give them.
For the people experiencing food insecurity, they deserve our attention and they deserve solutions. We live in an incredible society with so many opportunities; however, all of us can and need to step up and make a difference.
Thank you,
Paul.