Is it a coincidence that B.C. is seeing more families and seniors depending on food banks to survive and that the province’s minimum wage is $10.85 per hour?
Is it a coincidence that the food bank is struggling to keep up with supplying the hungry and that Vancouver is one of the most expensive places in the world to live?
You won’t find a Fraser Institute study to support our gut conclusions on hunger in the Lower Mainland, but you will find a lot of folks who simply don’t care why they’re now forced to depend on food banks to survive.
They don’t have the time or political energy to debate the whys and who is to blame on the political spectrum for this situation. It’s all they can do to get up each morning and make sure their kids are fed, or, if they are a senior, that they can make their way to a food bank and carry what they can home.
The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening. And with that gap comes the unfortunate tendency for those who “have” to turn a blind eye to the problem.
There was a time in Canada when there were no food banks. We have become so used to food bank drives that we have come to accept them as part of the “normal” way of life.
The first food bank was started in 1981 in Edmonton. Now there are hundreds of food banks across the country and thousands of food programs.
According to Food Banks Canada, 13 per cent of Canadians live in a state of food insecurity. They do not have reliable access to adequate amounts of safe, good-quality, nutritious food.
The number of people using food banks grew by 26 per cent from 2008 to 2015. We doubt very much it’s dropped since 2015.
This is not normal. Or, should we say, this should not be considered normal.
If people can’t afford good food because social assistance doesn’t pay them enough to live on, if people can’t afford good food because they can’t live on the minimum wage – more food banks are not the answer.
Forcing people to line up for charity to be able to survive is simply not OK.
Yes, we support and urge everyone to give to the food bank.
We can’t allow neighbours and fellow Canadians to go hungry.
But, if we are part of the “haves” in this country, we should not shrug our shoulders and simply accept this as part of Canadian society.
We think a “food bank tax” or “hunger tax” should be part of our tax system.
If food banks are here to stay, let’s make sure we all support them – or at least that the “haves” who can deliberate on what wine to have with their prime rib support them.
We suspect you won’t find the Fraser Institute supporting that idea, either.
