Working poor turning to region's food banks

from The Record

TAMSIN MCMAHON

Social agencies set up in the region to help the homeless and unemployed are increasingly seeing the working poor turning to them for help.

That was one of the revelations of panel last night on poverty, held as part of a campaign to push the provincial government to raise the minimum wage to $10.

The increase is proposed in a private member's bill by New Democrat MPP Cheri DiNovo.

"There is a feeling out there that if you work hard, you will be a success," said Katharine Schmidt, executive director of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

"There are tens of thousands of hardworking families that work harder and harder, longer and longer hours that, unfortunately, at the end of the day still live in poverty."

About 25,000, or five per cent of the local population, turns to food assistance programs each year.

It's a fact that's difficult to fathom in this region, with its healthy economy and high standard of living, she said.

The food banks have seen a shift toward serving more seniors on fixed incomes, people on disability assistance and the working poor.

Only about a third of the people who use the food banks are on social assistance, Schmidt said. "It's the working poor that are having to come and line up and ask for food," she said.

Of two-parent families living below the poverty line, about 80 per cent earn their entire income through work and receive nothing from government or social assistance.

Schmidt recalled a phone call she got from a mother just before Christmas. The woman said she needed help for just three days to feed her family before an aunt could step in to help.

When Schmidt asked her what kind of transportation she had to get to a food bank, the woman replied: "I have a job. I have a car, and I have a house."

"It's families out there that are having a hard time," Schmidt said.

Those living in poverty often can't afford daily health care and are increasingly turning to emergency rooms when their health deteriorates.

That puts a strain on the health care system that boosting wages could ease, said Sheila Braidek, executive director of the Downtown Kitchener Community Health Centre. "Poverty and not having an adequate minimum wage is not just an economic issue, it's a health issue," she said.

The Liberal government has gradually increased the minimum wage in Ontario, which will go up 25 cents, to $8, by the end of the month.

But raising the lowest wages 25 cents when MPPs recently gave themselves a 25 per cent raise, is a bit hard to swallow, said John Argue of the Ontario Coalition for Social Justice.

"It's just that these vast different are enormous. They're scandalous."

Raising the minimum wage alone won't eradicate poverty, but it may be the easiest fight for activists to win, said Brice Balmer, a Mennonite pastor and chaplaincy director for the House of Friendship.

tmcmahon@therecord.com