Food Bank Canada report: 'Alarming' number of Canadians seek help

don't worry, food bank users, Canada ranks no 5 in the world in prosperity.



Just get an education and you won't need that food bank anymore. Anybody can do it.

" One in seven self-identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit — up from 11 per cent in 2012 to 14 per cent in 2014."

maybe they can ask chiefy if he can spare a box of craft dinner from his 6 figure salary

The fact that so many of them are FNs just screams friggen abuse of the system.

The other one being new immigrants, hmm gee you think new immigrants might continue to use the "food bank" even well after they don't need it

Free food "woo hoo" "Canada is such a great country"

Yep....more social programs and we'll rid the country of poverty. Food banks will close and the World will be a happier place.

The food bank lines are getting longer, but the number of people in the lines is getting smaller.

That wont work and we in the USA know better lol and where still paying the high tab and cost err.

What a disgrace. No Child in this country should go hungry. Poorer neighborhoods should have breakfast and lunch programs in school so their lazy fuck parents don't screw up their kids shot at an education and future.

I volenteered for 6 months in a behavioral class in a bad neighbourhood when I was younger and remember this one quiet kid who brought two pieces of bread with a cheese single for lunch everyday and remember thinking, yeah I'd probably be in a behavioral class too.

Wrong answer.

I grew up in a working class family. My father was a high-steel construction worker before he married my mother. When she got pregnant with me, he quit that job to be a welder in the heavy equipment shop of the CN railroad. He had that job until he retired. My mother was a telephone operator until she got pregnant, but in the early '60s they didn't have maternity leave. She was required to quit. When us kids got older, she went back to work. Got a job as a bookkeeper. She hoped to work her way up to accountant, and did take RIA accounting certification, later called CMA, now CPA. But the company she worked for set up a computer department. She was young at the time, so she was asked to create the computer department. The house my parents had was in the blue-collar side of Transcona. There was a clear separation at that time; Day Street separated blue-collar homes from white-collar. Today it's all just one, no separation and merged with Winnipeg.

Despite all that, we went to school. Elementary school was close enough that I walked home for lunch every day. For junior high and high school, I brought a bag lunch. There was no school cafeteria, no vending machines. For junior high, we ate lunch at our desk, in the "home room" classroom. High school had a multi-purpose room: a large back-stage area, for a stage off the gym. High school also had a dedicated theatre, used to teach theatre, but the stage off the gym was used when the principle wanted to address the school. Resources were for science labs, theatre, music room, shops, etc. You know, actual learning. Not wasting money for something as simple as lunch.

I'm now unemployed myself. Have been for years. Was a senior software developer. When I ran for the 2008 federal election, I lost my job. The Canada Revenue Agency garnisheed my wages, despite the fact they had already provided a formal written assessment confirming how much money they owed me. My employer required me to resign within a hour of getting that notice. The manager didn't fire me because he would have gotten in trouble. And RBC Visa shut down all my bank accounts; their excuse was a payment made in full and 6 days before the due date somehow didn't count. The bank branch manager was on my side, tried to stop them, but someone in their corporate head office was out to get me. The party replaced me a week and a half into the writ period (election campaign period). Two days after the public announcement that he was the candidate, the same bank pulled the same stunt on him. He was forced to sell his business. No one will ever convince me that was a coincidence. That other candidate hired me as a computer repair technician for his store, but when he lost his business, new management changed most of the staff. So I lost my job, too. Haven't gotten a computer job since.

Not at all lazy. I've worked the graveyard shift at 7-Eleven. Recently the SuperStore hired me as receiver. It turned out they wanted me to work part-time at minimum wage, and expected me to replace a full-time worker. After just 4 days of training, the manager found I didn't do the job better than the guy who had been there two decades. The one day I did the job alone, she criticised me for not doing something the full-time guy with 2 decades experience hadn't done in 2 months. And just before Thanksgiving, busy season for a grocery store, second only to Christmas. So she terminated me. The good news is the full-time guy got to keep his job.

So I'm back on welfare. Or will be. I was also an election official for the City election. I was Senior Voting Officer, in charge of one advance poll, and Voting Place Director on election day. The SVO on election day used me as his backup, asked questions. Supervisors from the City Clerk's office said I did a great job, that the City should hire me. But I have sent applications, with no response. And I did work as a contractor for the City in 1998. I was "Information Systems Specialist", one notch short of computer manager for the entire City department. The City was closing that department, other systems analysts and the manager himself left before the department closed. I ran the computer for that City department the last few months before the department closed its doors. The computer ran smoothly. But now they won't answer my applications.

But welfare said between my job at SuperStore, just 3 weeks @ 3 days/week, plus 4 days for the City election, that I earned too much money. It was enough to pay my house insurance, quarterly water bill, monthly utility bills for October, with enough left over for monthly bills for November. They could have just withheld assistance for 2 months, but no, they cut me off. Now I have hearings to get back on welfare. Working hours were far too few for EI.

Oh, the 7-Eleven store where I worked the graveyard shift at minimum wage. They now hire immigrants from India. They won't consider me.

Welfare pays just enough for utility bills. I own my house, no rent and no mortgage, but do have property tax, house insurance, and burglar alarm monitoring. They agreed to pay tax and insurance, but pro-rate it bi-weekly. But my bills are annual. What I got for tax and insurance for the first half of the year went to the tax for the whole year. That left nothing for insurance this fall; so most of my paycheque went to that. Now welfare claims that I was irresponsible with my money. Furthermore, they demand I search for work, but won't pay anything for telephone or internet. Employers require any job applicant to have a phone, and in the computer industry they demand internet as well. I haven't sat on my ass, I have a small home business doing computer repairs. And declare all income. I get to keep $200/month of that earning, which goes toward phone and internet. And welfare calculated my heating bills for 12 months, pro-rated bi-weekly. But heating in winter is much higher; so bills were behind last winter. I had to catch up over the summer, no savings for insurance. And nothing for car, so my vehicle is parked without insurance. And it has been vandalized. Hasn't been repaired at all, because I have no money to do that.

And welfare provides $87 bi-weekly for "living expenses", which is expected to pay for groceries, clothing, bus fare, etc. Most of that money goes to utility bills they don't pay. So my groceries come from the food bank.

I still find it ironic, and frustrating. I have always been a working guy. Was a computer programmer, and rose to be senior software developer. Had some fancy titles. Never accepted social assistance before I tried to run for public office. I was never rich, but I did work. Now I'm on welfare and use the food bank.

But schools? No. Any money for lunch takes away from education. Parents can provide a bag lunch. Reserve school tax to actual education.

Sorry Winnipegger, I should have been more clear. I am a firm believer in a strong social safety net and have been a benificary of it myself when I was in need. However, I think we can both agree though that there are those who abuse the system and use it as a crutch for their whole lives. These are the ones who would rather buy a case of beer and a case of craft dinner instead of providing their children with actual nutritional meals.

These are the ones who infuriate me. It's fine and dandy to say, they should just give their kids a proper lunch but in many cases it doesn't happen. There are no qualifications neccessary to become a parent and there is no limit to the incompetency of some of those who do and it isn't the fault of the kids.

Until we start requiring licences to have children they are at the mercy of their ignorant parents and for that reason, I believe we should be stepping in to help them overcome their obstacles. It takes a village...

I'm surrounded by this everyday, and witness the impact it has on the cognitive and social development of said children. In many cases these kids are already screwed while in utero. Inferior genetics due to inbreeding, FAS, alcoholic parents who are also suffering from the same problems, corrupt local government and a federal system that holds no one accountable for financial mismanagement. For many, there is no hope because they so badly damaged that they just can't be fixed. Idealists may think there is hope, but as I've said before, they tend not to dwell in the real world that requires realistic solutions for real problems.

I'm not laughing because I disagree with you. I agree with your last sentence wholeheartedly. I'm laughing because breakfast programs are a grain of sand in the massive pile of wasted money in the education system. If the public had any clue of the waste, kickbacks and self-serving in public education, they'd lynch every board member, director and superintendent in the system, along with those "working" at the Colleges of Teachers and the Unions.

In Ontario, a lot of the breakfast programs are funded by outside money (some private, some public but outside of the education budget). So "school tax" isn't really the source of those dollars anyway.

For those who want to blame the parents. The parents are as fucked up as the kids, because their parents treated them exactly the same way. As has been shown, that actually causes changes in the brain, ie permanent deficiencies.

So by just bitching about the parents, you're just condemning the kids to the same fate. The state needs to step in, or the cycle will just continue.

Sadly there is no way the government will ever be able to give everyone all the help they need, as it would simply cost far too much.

Frankly, I find that we as individuals are better off supporting food banks and other non-profit organizations like E4C in Edmonton and Brown Bagging it for Calgary Kids;

http://bb4ck.org/

http://e4calberta.org/programs-services/

Almost every major city in the country has organizations doing something to help people in need, so get off your ass and give some food, time and/or money and be a part of the solution, not the problem.

So it costs too much if the state does it, but not if individuals do it? When the state does it, it uses money from all it's income sources, not just income tax. Individuals mostly just have their income and some minor investments to draw from. Don't see the logic, either way, individuals pay. I think breakfast and lunch programs in schools are a very good idea. And it's not just in very poor neighborhoods - people who work on these programs have seen hunger even in better off neighborhoods - they are not homogenous.