OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to an article about The Sharing Place Food Centre supporting a Gravenhurst organization, published March 22.
Governments at all levels and political stripes have, for well over the last 40 years, called on food banks to address the food needs and requirements of people instead of developing policies that would adequately reduce poverty.
The food bank in Orillia has recently started providing over 2,600 meals to people in need in the Town of Gravenhurst.
It is clear that elected politicians at all levels of government in Canada have failed and are continuing on with their traditions of tossing the frayed and broken lifeline ropes of charity rather than a strong lifeline of well-developed government policy to social assistance and disability support.
It is not anyone’s fault that they lost their job or became disabled, and while no one should feel embarrassed about going to a food bank, we should all be embarrassed by the fact that governments at all levels continue to point to food banks as the solutions for the deficiencies in government income support.
People need sufficient income. Contrary to what politicians say, food banks are not the answer to address the needs. Rather, policies developed by both the federal and provincial governments are required.
Politicians at both levels keep saying, “We are all in this together.” If this is true, then perhaps policies will be developed by the federal and provincial and municipal levels of government in Canada that will address the inadequate programs and provide a real safety net that would allow people to meet the necessities of life.
After more than 40 years, let’s hope that elected politicians will find the political will to actually develop the long-overdue policies that would allow people to have the necessities of life as opposed to living in poverty and suffering for more than 40 years.
To all elected politicians, at all levels of government in Canada, please find the political will.
Doug Abernethy
Gravenhurst
