Some well-known Torontonians are about to get a taste of what life is like for Barbara Kennedy, a grandmother suffering from liver cancer who says she’d starve to death if it weren’t for the food bank.
Kennedy, 50, receives social assistance and regularly visits The Stop Community Food Centre at Davenport and Symington for help.
Standing outside The Stop Tuesday, Kennedy told CityNews.ca she often feels embarrassed she can’t afford to offer her kids and grandchildren a meal when they come to visit.
“I think every person has the right to die with dignity and enjoy life with your children and your grandchildren. But to live like this, to starve to death, is pathetic,” she said.
The Stop Community Food Centre launched the second phase of its “Do the Math” campaign Tuesday, which aims to raise awareness about poverty and hunger in the city. A group of prominent Torontonians (see full list below), including author and activist Naomi Klein, city councillor Joe Mihevc and his family, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. David McKeown and former Alliance Atlantis CEO Michael MacMillan, received food hampers and will have to make them last as long as possible.
The participants are also being urged to eat at least two meals at a drop-in and they must arrive on foot, by bike or by TTC.
“They’re getting a tasteless taste in their mouth of what it’s like to try and make up what you get out of a food hamper. Good luck,” Kennedy said.
A typical hamper contains about $25 worth of food and is meant to last three days. The Stop says many of its visitors are forced to make that modest supplement stretch out for a week by eating one meal per day.
Photos: 1. Actor Anand Rajaram 2. Coun. Joe Mihevc and his daughter 3. Dr. David McKeown 4. Naomi Klein, Rosina Kazi and Nic Murray.
“We have two cities. One part of the city is well-fed and everything is fine and the other half … just aren’t getting enough to basically sustain themselves on a daily basis and these two cities are not talking to each other,” Mihevc said.
Related: Doing the Math on Poverty
Klein echoed that sentiment.
“We live in a city of tremendous disparity. I don’t live far from here but I live in a different world,” she said. “There aren’t many points of intersection between those two cities so we need to create them.”
Nick Saul, the Stop’s executive director, said the goal of this campaign isn’t to criticize food banks, but to highlight the lack of political will on social assistance issues.
“Food charity is not the answer to the crisis … that so many low income Ontarians are facing at this moment,” he said.
“A lot of politicians will say dealing with social assistance is a vote detractor because they don’t pay a political price for ignoring it. We need to create enough momentum around this issue that there is a political price.”
Related: Food Bank Extends Spring Drive After Donations Fall Short
Rajaram and Nick Saul
Saul said the last provincial Liberal budget contained a one per cent increase to social assistance -- a move Saul characterized as a “slap in the face” to needy Ontarians. Activists are also angered by the province’s plan to ax its special diet allowance program that provides up to $250 a month for ill people on social assistance.
Saul and other activists are demanding an immediate $100 a month Healthy Food Supplement for all adults on social assistance.
Kevin Cooke, a representative from the Ministry of Community and Social Services, said the special diet allowance has been eliminated because the program is “unsustainable”.
“In 2001-02 the budget stood at $6 million and currently in 2009-10 the budget was at $220 million,” he told CityNews.ca. “The auditor-general also raised many concerns about potential abuse or misuse of the program in his [December] 2009 report.”
Cooke said a new nutritional supplement program will be developed through the Ministry of Health to take its place.
There’s no timeline yet as to when that program will be fully implemented, but Cooke said people currently receiving the special diet allowance won’t be immediately cut off or left in the lurch while the government works to develop the new program.
More from Shawne McKeown on food security issues:
New Parkdale Food Co-op Offers Accessible $5 Memberships
Urban Agriculture and Activism - Food Security For All
Here are the 10 Torontonians taking part in the “Do the Math” program:
Joe Mihevc, councillor, ward 21
Dr. David McKeown, Toronto Medical Officer of Health
Anand Rajaram, actor
Michael MacMillan, Media executive
Wayne Roberts, Manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council
Nick Saul, Executive Director of The Stop and Andrea Curtis, Writer and Editor
Corey Mintz, Toronto Star food columnist
Naomi Klein, author of “The Shock Doctrine” and “No Logo”, and Avi Lewis, journalist and host Al-Jazeera
Damian Abraham, frontman of band Fucked Up
Rosina Kazi and Nic Murray of the band LAL
Click here for more on the Stop’s Do the Math campaign and for updates from the participants.