Two Bradford West Gwillimbury councillors are on a mission to help end hunger and poverty.
Ward 1 Coun. Cheraldean Duhaney and Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott recently participated in a lobbying day at Queen's Park about poverty reduction hosted by Feed Ontario.
"We were there as the two council liaisons on the board of our Helping Hand Food Bank, meeting with MPPs to encourage them to prioritize poverty reduction through increasing social-assistance rates, tackling housing affordability and combatting food insecurity," explained Scott.
Duhaney said it was it was heartbreaking to hear some of the stories from people who are experiencing financial difficulties, and the barriers due to roadblocks when seeking advice on how to navigate them.
"As councillor I am intentional about seeking opportunities that will help with the growth and development of our community," she said. "Some of the causes of food insecurity are unemployment, low income and poverty. Addressing these barriers, I believe, will help to reduce food insecurity."
Feed Ontario is a network of 1,200 direct and affiliate food banks and hunger-relief agencies across the province. In the last year alone, Ontario’s food bank network served more than 587,000 low-income Ontarians who accessed its services over 4.3 million times. The use of food banks in Ontario continues to skyrocket, with Feed Ontario’s 2022 hunger report revealing a 46 per cent increase in visits compared to pre-pandemic levels.
"Food banks started in the 1980s and 1990s as stop-gap measure," said Scott. "We know that the real solution is public policy that works to reduce poverty by providing people the granite under their feet so they can live decent lives, especially coming out of the pandemic and with inflation making household budgets very difficult."
Scott said council has worked hard to put in place a variety of innovative approaches to public policy to help support the most vulnerable.
"In particular, we’ve worked to leverage town-owned land to build affordable housing and to support our social services," he explained. "This approach includes the 50-unit affordable housing being built as we speak on vacant town land at Simcoe Rd. and Marshview Blvd, working with LOFT to add 100 brand new assisted-living housing units for some of our most vulnerable seniors on surplus town land at Barrie St. and Fredrick St., and of course renovating the old Bradford Public School into a community centre, which will house a new 4500-square-food food bank."
Helping Hand Food Bank Executive Director, Carolyn Khan, said the event was a great opportunity for the councillors to meet with MPPs to discuss the challenges facing food banks.
"There were some important conversations around food insecurity and the impact that it is having right here in Bradford," said Khan. "The hard work continues as we need to turn these conversations into action. Our political leaders need to know that food banks need funds to be able to support our residents who are struggling to make ends meet."
Khan added that this isn't simply a food issue, saying it extends to the need for affordable housing and increased social supports.
"Poverty is not going away anytime soon and this event was a great opportunity to let our MPPs know that."
In order to reduce poverty and address Ontario’s food insecurity and affordability issues, Feed Ontario has put forward the following for inclusion in the next provincial budget.
- Increase Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)
- Change the earned incomes clawback formula that is being used for Ontario works to match that of the Ontario Disability Support Program
- Invest in Ontario’s non-profit sector as outlines by the Ontario Non-profit Network.
For more information on Feed Ontario can be found here.
