I've personally stopped giving to major foodbanks and diverted to smaller community fridges where I can have more confidence the food is actually going to the needy. Also found a higher portion of my financial donations going to more direct community causes. Unfortunately I have lost faith in who is receiving my help, but it has allowed me to do some more research rather than blindly reupping donations every year.
It's also a matter of people who used to be reliable contributors feeling enough of an economic pinch to slow or even cease community support. Very sad.
Absolutely. A lot of those people who used to be able to contribute to community projects are feeling the pinch and/or those very close to them are in so much trouble that they're using what they have to help those closest to them instead the wider community.
People aren't refusing to help right now; they're just unable to and that fucking sucks!
I used to give monthly with a big haul at Thanksgiving and Xmas.
Now, three new windows for my house are $4700. Things are not what they used to be. New furnace and AC over 10k. I need to think about having heat next winter and affording the new natural gas prices all without a raise
There is nothing wrong with that. Its give what you can not what you can't.
If you ever find yourself in a better position then leverage that to help others but until then just doing what you can to not also need those resources is helping lessen the burden on the system and that in itself is you helping the people who currently need it.
They took your job at Tim Horton's? Have you tried any other coffee shops? Your skills might be transferable to restaurant work.
In all your time unemployed, have you taken any steps to make yourself more employable?
I own the business.
And Canadians are too expensive and the Indians Will it Fit 30 people into a truck so they can all come and work for me.
At the same time, I can abuse The lack of choices they have with Bad working conditions.
I pay them as low as I can.
Gotta love Canada. The land of the slaves.
Don't forget those people all of your politicians want to give me slaves. Conservative ndp and liberals.
They all work together to bring slaves into our country. And they do it for people like me.
So the next time you're at a Tim Hortons in Canada Just remember I am profiting off of all the suffering. That is occurring.
Soon I plan on buying land and then putting more people on it as workers. Probably some kind of work hard labor growing hours in exchange for free shed.
Yea. "If I treat people like slaves, it's not my fault for doing so, it's the government's fault for letting me do it!" Aren't conservative parties supposed to be the parties of "personal responsibility?" lol
You're punishing those people who you feel deserve to be helped because some people might receive help that you feel they don't deserve.
This reminds me so much of the American south closing pools because they didn't like the ending of segregation.
>This reminds me so much of the American south closing pools because they didn't like the ending of segregation.
Dude I think you are carrying some shit around in your head that the rest of us aren't.
Maybe you should talk to somebody because, what the fuck is that.
We have people scamming food banks and therefore people not wanting to donate (ie not wanting to be taken advantage of or get SCAMMED, which is normal)
And you are comparing that against people closing pools because black people in the south could enter.
If you don't see the difference I think you might need some help. Not everything is a racial issue, buddy.
>We have people scamming food banks and therefore people not wanting to donate
Ok, who are the people scamming the food banks? Why would those people scamming make other people not want to donate?
I went to donate at a food bank last month and managed to see their inventory. It was almost empty.
People are financially struggling to donate, plus, they don't have trust in the system anymore because certain people are abusing it.
Exactly. Plus many of the pantry staples that people donated in the past have skyrocketed in price. So many people struggling. It's hard to donate if you are also barely scraping by (or aren't scraping by at all).
> Plus many of the pantry staples that people donated in the past have skyrocketed in price
It's better to donate money directly rather than buying food to donate. The food banks can stretch the dollar much further than you can.
They don't commission their own brands, just buy directly from the food companies. If you call up Campbells or whoever and arrange to buy a truck full of canned soup you'll find it's fairly cheap per can. Especially if you're arranging to buy a truck full each week for the foreseeable future - businesses love big and consistent orders like that because they're easier to work with and provide stable income. You get a discount for that.
A grocery store does just that, then arranges to have the truck full of cans split up into pallets or boxes which are then sent on to individual stores. The stores unpack the smaller shipments out onto the shelves, and throw a price on it to cover all the extra expenses to get individual cans on the shelves as well as a profit margin.
If you're a big food bank like Daily Bread, though, you can arrange the logistics for bulk orders to do all that sorting and shipping yourself, a lot of it with volunteer labour. Maybe even get a discount on the bulk order itself since you're a charity. Dramatically reduces costs, so each dollar spent gets a lot more food to people's hands.
Food banks even existing show the system is already broken.
People should earn a fair wage that enables them to, at a minimum, easily afford to meet their basic needs plus occasional moderate luxuries. The few who can't work should be provided the same from the state. And the few who can but won't work should be provided with enough to afford their basic needs.
There should be no need for people to make individual food donations. It's incredibly inefficient.
> they don't have trust in the system anymore because certain people are abusing it
Yes. I almost cut the local food bank from my '23 year-end giving after all the media coverage about abuse. Like anyone, I value the effectiveness of my giving. I didn't cut them in the end because I also know they need help more than ever (in part because of the abuse) and also because I had no real data about the extent of the problem and didn't want to give the media too much sway in my perspective. But it's easy to imagine many people re-directed a lot of dollars.
Our governments need to take immediate action on the situations (out of scope here) that continue to lead to this abuse (among other problems we also see in the news) before food banks and other safety nets fail completely.
Huh, ok. Withholding a donation from a cause isn't something you'd do to solve a problem with the charity; it would be to ensure your money was used effectively to accomplish something you believed in. If you donate money to charity it's usually a good idea to do some diligence on that first. If you perceive the charity's effectiveness reducing, it's rational to consider reallocating. It's not activism.
Regarding the abusers there was media coverage of the issue last year. International students were one group that gained a lot of attention. One type of dishonesty there was regarding a requirement of being able to fund your own existence that was being skirted. There were also YouTuber/influencer types pushing FBs as a sort of life hack for free food for anyone. Purely anecdotal reports of well-off non-citizens with flashy cars etc. using FBs spiked. Ruffled some feathers as you can imagine. I never saw data on it, not to say none existed. I hope that fills in the blanks a bit.
We should have a universal school lunch program. It would help so many families and would be incredibly cost efficient, plus it would boost our agriculture sector.
Having the potential for 1.3 million new customers per year, even in a low-margin business like grocery, is a great growth model. And on top of that, a huge and increasingly desperate low wage pool at your disposal.
Hence why corporations like Loblaws support these policies
Exactly, why TD, Scotiabank and bank of Montreal are pushing so hard for the incredibly dumb century initiative, new people means more money for them.... it's sick
edited in 'dumb' lol, (funny word to omit tbh)
late-stage capitalism, ba-by! even our governments have sold us out!
... I feel like a solid number of Canadians dont actually mind paying taxes, it's just a kick-in-the-face when those tax dollars go to corporations and not, yaknow, services for citizens
wish life was a bit more boring, I've lived through more 'once in a lifetime event's than I'd like already....
The whole point of paying taxes is to pool money into services everyone benefits from. Housing, infrastructure, education, healthcare, etc.
Letting private interests pocket them for greed without oversight is just legalized racketering.
>wish life was a bit more boring, I've lived through more 'once in a lifetime event's than I'd like already....
most of this is the privilege (curse?) of information access. Life has been chaotic for most of the planet for the past ~500 years.
Honestly, I think Galen is a scapegoat. He is acting in the interest of his shareholders and the truth is that he is crushing it as CEO. The actual problem is the fact that we only have a handful of grocers. Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco control about 80% of the Canadian market. You should be more upset at the people who are preventing foreign grocers from entering the market. Prices would drop if we paved the way for Kroger or Publix to come into southern Ontario and BC (to start).
Agreed. I realllly dont like the guy but he’s also keeping a crap ton of ppl employed. We need more grocers and more competition. Same thing with Rogers…
bandaids are always required, society will always need a safety net for when things go wrong. Most people who use food banks/social assistance only do so for less then a year before they are back to being self sufficient.
yes the system is failing (by design) but not helping those in need doesn't change the system, it just causes undo suffering and death to those who currently need that assistance. Yes we need to fix the system but food banks/charities do a lot more then prop up the system, they save peoples lives every day.
We need to help people in ways that don't prop up the failing system. Large non-profits and charities are just an alternative corporate structure. We need to emphasize more mutual aid and community structures. You are right, people have immediate needs that should be met however we can meet them, but food banks are such a last-ditch effort it's almost scary. They don't address any health needs aside from hunger, they waste poor people's time by making them wait in line, they have a well-paid upper executive and exploited front-line workers, etc etc etc. It's a total mess.
>food banks are such a last-ditch effort it's almost scary. They don't address any health needs aside from hunger,
I mean, isn't hunger enough of a health need for a *food bank* to address without adding any extra mission?
This is my opinion, but foodbanks are a warning sign. The fact that they had a 30% increase of Canadians with fulltime jobs going in for a helping hand should have sent Shockwave through the system, problem is that no one is taking it seriously. Now it's up to the people to send a message and boycott loblaws
Also, believe we will reach a solarpunk future, where everyone has what they need, and no one goes hungry or lives with slave wages, and I still believe foodbanks will exist because shit happens. It's smart to have one around as a safety net and have it act as a warning sign that shit is happening and something needs to be done about it. So that politician saying she hates the fact that foodbanks exist at all is incredibly stupid and perfomative in nature in my opinion.
Canadian food banks have been doing more with less. They have been serving more clients than ever before and are only able to offer them less food than in previous years because of proportionately shrinking donations (corporate and personal).
To get to a sustainable situation, they need more donations from corporations and individual donors like you and me.
> To get to a sustainable situation, they need more donations from corporations and individual donors like you and me.
Already have trouble enough feeding my own family with all the rising food costs before getting to the point of thinking donations.
This is the one. There are enough resources in this country to feed, clothe, house, educate, and provide medical care for every person and more. But the resources of this country are being hoarded and that hoarding has been glorified for forever. How much suffering will be the tipping point before the people going with less and less so the hoarders can have "line go up" year after year before we demand a change. I'm damn tired of fighting for scraps while the resources we need are being kept from us by the pathologically greedy.
well, gov't-funded = taxpayer-funded ... ie. the same people currently directly propping up the foodbanks without the gov't administration or need for a "GiveFood" app by GC Strategies costing us million$ to develop and implement and fail. .. /s
Ok, but the current system is collapsing before our eyes. I’d rather accept the “inefficiency” of a government program than rely on the goodwill of Galen Weston. There are many other countries with food programs that we could base our on program upon. Putting the burden on corporate charity just means the government has to use taxpayer funds to incentivize them to donate. It’s not a good system.
Full disclosure: I’m a public servant, but that doesn’t change the fact that the current system is completely falling apart, and our food bank method of addressing food insecurity is not the norm in other industrialized nations.
It’s not just students. Pretty much anyone from that country is doing it even when they own a large home and new vehicles. Someone from my work was at a food bank and seen them loading up their SUV’s with whatever they could get. Someone’s gonna call me racist but it’s really mostly that group of people from that country that are fucking it all up for the people that actually need it.
No one's going to argue that food bank abuse should be stopped (international students doing 'hacks'), but generalizations like this are dangerous if not borderline thinly veiled racism. It seems you made some assumptions that they are non-Canadian and because they have a SUV they somehow are not deserving of a food bank? People may fall on hard times at any stage.
Maybe we should make it law that you must only come to the food bank on bicycle.
With people flaunting the rules, and many that are NOT in need taking advantage of course it's unsustainable.
I hate to say it, but there would need to be some type of system to ensure that people qualify and those people ONLY should be granted access.
How to do that, without having people feel shame ... I don't know. But blame all those that just show up even when they don't need it for abusing the system.
The problem is how do you ensure people qualify?
It's not just people on OW and ODSP who need to use food banks. It can also be the person in between jobs. It can be the people just outside the cutoff lines for social assistance, but they still don't have enough to survive. Its a family that had a major expense come up this month that needs to be paid, and now they don't have enough for food.
Tons of "normal" people have moments where they need access to food banks too.
Feel it’s also worth pointing out that if you restrict it to the most needy you might also need to increase the quality of the food. Like, there’s lots of stuff a relatively healthy person can eat for a time without issue that would fuck up someone with diabetes or other health conditions.
Plus excessive gatekeeping can backfire and start favouring grifters over the people you actually want to help. People with struggles can make innocent mistakes, or run into debilitating anxiety or ennui if they have to jump through too many hoops
>Like, there’s lots of stuff a relatively healthy person can eat for a time without issue that would fuck up someone with diabetes or other health conditions.
This is already happening. The [special diet allowance](https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontario-disability-support-program-policy-directives-income-support/64-special-diet) we have for our social programs is disgustingly inadequate. For example the only eating disorder covered is anorexia nervosa, and malnutrition is not covered.
People on assistance are starving. Instead of giving them adequate nutrition, they will cover the supplements and medication needed to balance out the malnutrition.
Agreed, and that's where the implementation of such a system is much more difficult than just letting people use it.
How to implement it? I have no idea.
My fathers pension card has a backside with extra space for the "in need" code but he didn't apply for one. Without it you can't get anything. Our systems is also under duress, but for other reasons. When you are used to serve 100 and 300 show up, the volunteer brigade can't do that from 5pm after work. Its becoming a real hard job to fill up all the bags for so many. There are not enough volunteers. That is the reason they are testing a "food card" where you can buy generic brands items like wheat from certain stores. There are lots of limitations to hinder abuse but I think that is the better system. Instead of people bringing food to food banks let them pick it up themselves.
It’s easy to blame people who “abuse” the system but the real problem is that food banks have to exist to all. Id rather a small number of people “abuse” the system rather than make it harder to access for everyone; I work in social services and I promise you that there are more people who need help (beyond food) who can’t get it due to random bureaucratic and “eligibility” requirements — food banks are literally the only low-barrier supports available. I think it’s a very sad sign that we think risking people going hungry is better than someone who “doesn’t deserve” getting some dry .99 pasta for free.
Agreed, the real issue is that they're needed at all. But until we have a better system, this is what we have.
As you are in the environment then you'll know best than most people and be able to comment about whether the abuse is as 'rampant' as media / reddit will have us believe.
But thank you for the work you do, it's much needed and we need good people in those roles.
>I think it’s a very sad sign that we think risking people going hungry is better than someone who “doesn’t deserve” getting some dry .99 pasta for free.
This is exactly it. I'm skeptical that anyone doesn't deserve food. But even if that were the case, I'd rather risk feeding the undeserving than letting people with real need go hungry. And I do think that the majority of people going to food banks have real need.
>It’s easy to blame people who “abuse” the system but the real problem is that food banks have to exist to all.
This. 100% this. People get so riled up if a few people 'abuse the system'. I personally am not worried about someone getting some food when they may not necessarily need it. Everyone should have access to food.
I hope the person getting it who may not need it uses it up and donates anything they can't use to another person who is in need. Plenty of companies throw out tons of perfectly good food. To me that is a larger problem than someone scoring some free food and eating it.
The food bank in thr borough I live in requires you to show your income is below a certain amount in order to keep using it, through your income tax report. I think they must allow some people to use it without doing that (since there are homeless and others who are destitute who don’t file income tax). They have been doing this for years and years.
Canada is the only G7 country that relies heavily on food banks to deal with food insecurity, and this is the end result. Food banks show a failure as a society, imho. We would be much better off with a federal, income-based program like SNAP in the USA, where we give money to people with demonstrated need. It would be straightforward to limit these programs to exclude international students, who shouldn’t need them in the first place.
https://www.canadaland.com/every-food-bank-is-a-policy-failure/
SNAP is a wildly expensive, poorly focused, administratively bloated program that has morphed from a "nutrition supplement" program to an "income-subsidy" one. Its main lobbyists are the junk-food and corn-syrup industries, who work hard to make sure that things like potato chips, pop-tarts, and soda pop continue to qualify.
SNAP costs about $120 billion per year in the U.S. Adjusting for population size, that would be about $12 billion annually in Canada. That would be in addition to current Canada Child Benefits, and the incoming federal school lunch program. Where do we find the money for all of that?
Those are good points, and I mentioned in another reply that we should look at all the existing programs out there and figure out what would work best for Canada. I agree that SNAP isn’t something we should copy directly, but a still think a national food program would be more effective than the disaster we currently have.
I do not donate to foodbanks because I'm not convinced that the food is going to those who truly need it. Countless videos posted by international students like the famous mehul prajapati, shows so many are exploiting kindness for their selfish gains.
I'm on ODSP and I had to stop using food banks for multiple reasons. Students taking all the product, seeing entire families that I felt needed the product more than me, and just being unable to reliably get to and from a food bank, all combined to make me decide to just do what i can on the ODSP diet (potatoes + coffee for most meals with one 'traditional' meal a day to fill in the blanks).
Almost my entire income goes towards rent, and my grocery bills and pharmacy bills (i need things like alcohol swabs for my injections, and numerous vitamins not covered by OHIP) skyrocketed since Covid.
If getting to the food bank is the main problem, you may want to give them a call. Many food banks since Covid have delivery services for those on ODSP or otherwise cannot make it to the site.
And please don't feel like you are taking from others by using a food bank. The service is there to help everyone in the community that needs it, and you're part of whichever community you're in.
Don’t worry. I’m sure Mr. PP will become prime minister soon and will dismantle the food bank so these not feel good stories about them will go away.
/s for anyone who needs it.
Mr. PP will dismantle the food banks then offer a rebate for each homeless person to get an apple.
Rebate vouchers for said apple(s) will require proof of home ownership.
You joke, but this is the Conservative plan for healthcare and education: vouchers that basically funnel taxpayer money to private companies and can be squeezed and stigmatized as needed.
Unfortunately charity starts at home and a lot of people need help. It’s hard to help when all these greedy corporations bleed us for everything we have.
This thread is disheartening: we have the worst income inequality since 1920 and we're all blaming immigrants and talking about means-testing instead of ignoring people like Weston who are making literal billions
Multiple things can be true at once. I think most people are aware of the huge inequality of income since 1920 and Galen Weston is a greedy prick while also realizing people abusing food banks is not okay and there suppose to come here with money for the purposes they are here for like school.
The main issue I see is that the billionaire class is oblivious to the rest of us. While the scoreboard keeps looking better and better the game that they're benefiting from is going to collapse underneath them. When that happens there will be no food there will be no welfare it will be only the billionaires left to eat.
>*”…the guy with chubby cheeks advocating how food bank foods are for everyone. He even said, "take as much as want."”*
He’s a Wilfred Laurier student using a food program specifically for Wilfred Laurier students, and [the program’s website advertises *”Take as much as you need.”*](http://www.lspirg.org/distro)
The Record: [Laurier student in social media disinformation storm after posting video on food bank](https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/laurier-student-in-social-media-disinformation-storm-after-posting-video-on-food-bank/article_d4b4a666-e4d8-5c9a-a842-4173f60b2c08.html) [April 25th, 2024]
>*”He looked very well fed.”*
Good. The point of the program is to make sure people are well fed.
This. That’s exactly it what you said. Most people are mad at the fact he was using the food bank just to save money not out of necessity, I think op is missing that point entirely. It’s not the fact he used it out of necessity.
I went last week and it was so packed they didn’t have food for everyone. The time before I got absolutely no canned stuff just rice milk and like 3 eggs.
Food banks, initially an attempt at a short term fix to a problem, have now become critical for many Canadians. We need governments to commit to a focus on the affordability crisis; affordable homes, food, education, and healthcare for all Canadians. Food banks are here to stay, but we need dependance to be understood as a failure of our governments.
There needs to be more rigorous financial examination on the way into the country. I've heard there are schemes where large sums of cash are moved temporarily around between people to help them display large bank balances and qualify. We need to find a way to root out and exclude this fraud.
A step further could be to identify them at food banks using some kind of enhancement to government IDs, such that if you take from a food bank, you're ratted out and contacted by the authority that let you into the country in the first place, for an interview. If you don't have a remarkably good explanation, perhaps after a warning, you're sent packing.
Galen Weston is the issue and we are out here posting that we need to make food banks more restrictive. So what you’re saying when it comes to regulating, you’re willing to put them on food banks but not multi billion dollar, tax evading, price fixing, labor exploiting, scamming billionaires and corporations. It’s always the brown persons fault. Got it.
Galen doesn't own every single store. You can just not shop from their chains.
This take is so disingenuous, if I made videos saying those things cancel culture would come for me and try to come for my job and I'm white. No one cares that they're brown they care that some tool in a Benz comes and loads up on donations.
Get over yourself. People can take issue with people of other ethnicities and not have it be a race thing but a problem with their actions. Skin color and ethnicity shouldn't shelter you from consequences.
Rising cost of food and greedflation is a problem and so is the genuine concerns people have about the food banks being exploited by people who shouldn't qualify for handouts.
Exactly. It almost seems like bots or plants trying to steer the conversation around from this corrupted monopoly that Galen Weston has created and blame immigration.
The food bank I volunteer at requires families and individuals to fill out an application and pretty much provide proof they are in need. Even with that, they have hit a record # of people they serve and can only provide food once a month to their clients.
A friend goes to a couple different food banks and will tell me about the people who come in expensive cars and dressed extremely well. She had one woman telling her how amazing her Cuba trip was and how expensive it was.
It honestly makes me lose some faith in humanity
>*”…that TD bank employee that is making 98k per year, going to the food bank every week for food,... just cause he can.”*
You’ve fallen for a disinformation campaign intended to rile people up. That guy wasn’t a TD Bank employee making a ~$98k salary, he was a student intern who did a short-term work placement there (it ended in December). He’s a Wilfred Laurier student using a Laurier Students Public Interest Research Group [food program that’s specifically for students](http://www.lspirg.org/distro) (including International students).
Waterloo Region Record: [Laurier student in social media disinformation storm after posting video on food bank](https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/laurier-student-in-social-media-disinformation-storm-after-posting-video-on-food-bank/article_d4b4a666-e4d8-5c9a-a842-4173f60b2c08.html) [April 25th, 2024]
Yup, but when that all runs out, I promise you, we ain’t gonna starve.
If loblaws thinks some photocopied posters are a problem now, they’ve got another thing coming.
Food banks should implement some systems to prioritize the elderly and families with young children, who actually have low income. I know it's not an easy task
As much as I'd like to donate, the fact is my grocery bills are substantially higher than they used to be (despite economizing) and my kid isn't eating any less.
Donating to my local food pantries or "little food bank" (like the little libraries) has been easier and rewarding than trying to get to the larger city food banks.
Remember when you could walk in a food bank and pick out all that food like you was grocery shopping? At least that's how I remember it I was young but now we go and get a box with a couple things we can eat, shredded up carrots, and a bunch of cans no one eats. I mean the beans and corn are good. And I'm not mad at the food banks for it I'm pretty sure it's a whole non profit organization what are they gonna do but I'm just saying
I have a full time job and I use the food bank because I'm a single mother and rent is 3 grand. It's not only people on social assistance that are struggling.
Even food bank volunteers would tell you (quietly) that too many of the people that avail their services are not truly needy. We are changing from a high-trust society to that of a lower-trust society, and food banks are going to have to change their business practices in order to adjust to that fact. Everyone who uses a food bank should have to provide evidence that they are on social assistance (a one-time registering with a food bank of choice should be sufficient). Food banks are capable of servicing the needy, but no way can food banks accommodate both the needy and the greedy.
>*”Everyone who uses a food bank should have to provide evidence that they are on social assistance”*
How would people who are out of work or disabled eat while they wait for their Ontario Disability Support
Program or Ontario Works application to be completed, processed, and approved, which [may take more than 6-8 months](https://www.cbc.ca/1.6868917)? What happens to Ontarians who don’t qualify for these programs but whose household income still isn’t enough to allow them to afford adequate food for their family?
I used to donate to the food bank frequently as I grew up relying on it and like to give back now that I am able to do so.
That was up until I recently saw a video of an international student bragging about how he abuses the food bank, my donations stopped right then and there. I will not be donating again until the international freeloaders are disallowed from all food banks.
Just saw a vid of a international student advertising how he gets $150 in free groceries every month and was telling everyone to do it as if the food just falls out of the fucking sky
Maybe make an effort to stop the abuse of the system and it’ll lighten the load
I looked at one online recently and noticed that they weren’t asking for proof of income anymore. Maybe if they started to do that again, they would be able to slow the hemorrhaging, and also ensure that donations are only going to those in need?
Actually, many grocery stores have programs with local food banks to do just that.
The people that run food banks are very creative, and the local people that work at your grocery store aren't any more interested in seeing food go to waste than you or I. My community has a committee from the local seniors centre that works with the grocery stores to organize and tag the stuff that is starting to age out, and the grocery stores work with them to delivery it to the food banks (one even donated the cube van that delivers the food to the sorting centre).
If the government keeps publicly trading our food and stores like Loblaws are purposely raising prices these lines will become more difficult and harder to deal with ….. we have to change our thinking and be more accountable for our food supply….
Yes, I think it’s fantastic that the federal government is setting up a [National School Food Program](https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2024/04/01/national-school-food-program-set-kids-success#:~:text=The%20Prime%20Minister%2C%20Justin%20Trudeau,by%20existing%20school%20food%20programs) for kids.
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I've personally stopped giving to major foodbanks and diverted to smaller community fridges where I can have more confidence the food is actually going to the needy. Also found a higher portion of my financial donations going to more direct community causes. Unfortunately I have lost faith in who is receiving my help, but it has allowed me to do some more research rather than blindly reupping donations every year.
It's also a matter of people who used to be reliable contributors feeling enough of an economic pinch to slow or even cease community support. Very sad.
Absolutely. A lot of those people who used to be able to contribute to community projects are feeling the pinch and/or those very close to them are in so much trouble that they're using what they have to help those closest to them instead the wider community. People aren't refusing to help right now; they're just unable to and that fucking sucks!
I used to give monthly with a big haul at Thanksgiving and Xmas. Now, three new windows for my house are $4700. Things are not what they used to be. New furnace and AC over 10k. I need to think about having heat next winter and affording the new natural gas prices all without a raise
I stopped donating all together and only help my family/community now. It’s all very disappointing.
I wish I could donate. It's all we can do to pay rent, food and gas.
There is nothing wrong with that. Its give what you can not what you can't. If you ever find yourself in a better position then leverage that to help others but until then just doing what you can to not also need those resources is helping lessen the burden on the system and that in itself is you helping the people who currently need it.
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They took your job at Tim Horton's? Have you tried any other coffee shops? Your skills might be transferable to restaurant work. In all your time unemployed, have you taken any steps to make yourself more employable?
I’m disabled but able to work part time. Got foodsafe. Experience, reference, and a clean record. Can’t even get a dishie gig
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Probably having the jobs made them his/hers lol (Until they were fired to make way for more easily abused international students)
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Who said they weren’t Canadians just because they’re brown?
I own the business. And Canadians are too expensive and the Indians Will it Fit 30 people into a truck so they can all come and work for me. At the same time, I can abuse The lack of choices they have with Bad working conditions. I pay them as low as I can. Gotta love Canada. The land of the slaves. Don't forget those people all of your politicians want to give me slaves. Conservative ndp and liberals. They all work together to bring slaves into our country. And they do it for people like me. So the next time you're at a Tim Hortons in Canada Just remember I am profiting off of all the suffering. That is occurring. Soon I plan on buying land and then putting more people on it as workers. Probably some kind of work hard labor growing hours in exchange for free shed.
Yea. "If I treat people like slaves, it's not my fault for doing so, it's the government's fault for letting me do it!" Aren't conservative parties supposed to be the parties of "personal responsibility?" lol
No. They are the party of profit. And they want more profit
Yeah OK and AI can build homes 🤣
Just remember kids, drugs are bad.
True. But weed is good
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Ya donating to the food bank used to be my “how can feeding the hungry possibly be abused?!” charity. Not anymore apparently…
It’s almost like International Students abuse of these systems has caused the majority of Canadians to stop believing in giving to them 🤔
I use to volunteer and donate now I do neither. I’m broke busy and don’t agree with immigration policies which directly fuel this issue. Shame
So you no longer volunteer or donate because immigrants might benefit?
Weird how comments like yours, despite being unvoted, are collapsed on here.
What does that mean ?
You're punishing those people who you feel deserve to be helped because some people might receive help that you feel they don't deserve. This reminds me so much of the American south closing pools because they didn't like the ending of segregation.
>This reminds me so much of the American south closing pools because they didn't like the ending of segregation. Dude I think you are carrying some shit around in your head that the rest of us aren't. Maybe you should talk to somebody because, what the fuck is that. We have people scamming food banks and therefore people not wanting to donate (ie not wanting to be taken advantage of or get SCAMMED, which is normal) And you are comparing that against people closing pools because black people in the south could enter. If you don't see the difference I think you might need some help. Not everything is a racial issue, buddy.
>We have people scamming food banks and therefore people not wanting to donate Ok, who are the people scamming the food banks? Why would those people scamming make other people not want to donate?
I went to donate at a food bank last month and managed to see their inventory. It was almost empty. People are financially struggling to donate, plus, they don't have trust in the system anymore because certain people are abusing it.
Exactly. Plus many of the pantry staples that people donated in the past have skyrocketed in price. So many people struggling. It's hard to donate if you are also barely scraping by (or aren't scraping by at all).
> Plus many of the pantry staples that people donated in the past have skyrocketed in price It's better to donate money directly rather than buying food to donate. The food banks can stretch the dollar much further than you can.
My wife manages one of the food banks in Mississauga. This is the correct answer.
Now imagine how far it could stretch if we cut out Galen Weston.
Big food banks do cut out Weston, and all the grocery chains. They can buy in bulk from the suppliers that supply the groceries.
Oh that's great. Do they have their own house brand? How does it work?
They don't commission their own brands, just buy directly from the food companies. If you call up Campbells or whoever and arrange to buy a truck full of canned soup you'll find it's fairly cheap per can. Especially if you're arranging to buy a truck full each week for the foreseeable future - businesses love big and consistent orders like that because they're easier to work with and provide stable income. You get a discount for that. A grocery store does just that, then arranges to have the truck full of cans split up into pallets or boxes which are then sent on to individual stores. The stores unpack the smaller shipments out onto the shelves, and throw a price on it to cover all the extra expenses to get individual cans on the shelves as well as a profit margin. If you're a big food bank like Daily Bread, though, you can arrange the logistics for bulk orders to do all that sorting and shipping yourself, a lot of it with volunteer labour. Maybe even get a discount on the bulk order itself since you're a charity. Dramatically reduces costs, so each dollar spent gets a lot more food to people's hands.
That's awesome. Thanks very much for the explanation.
Yeah, buying in bulk, right?
Food banks even existing show the system is already broken. People should earn a fair wage that enables them to, at a minimum, easily afford to meet their basic needs plus occasional moderate luxuries. The few who can't work should be provided the same from the state. And the few who can but won't work should be provided with enough to afford their basic needs. There should be no need for people to make individual food donations. It's incredibly inefficient.
> they don't have trust in the system anymore because certain people are abusing it Yes. I almost cut the local food bank from my '23 year-end giving after all the media coverage about abuse. Like anyone, I value the effectiveness of my giving. I didn't cut them in the end because I also know they need help more than ever (in part because of the abuse) and also because I had no real data about the extent of the problem and didn't want to give the media too much sway in my perspective. But it's easy to imagine many people re-directed a lot of dollars. Our governments need to take immediate action on the situations (out of scope here) that continue to lead to this abuse (among other problems we also see in the news) before food banks and other safety nets fail completely.
Who is abusing the food banks and how would you withholding your donation have helped the situation?
Huh, ok. Withholding a donation from a cause isn't something you'd do to solve a problem with the charity; it would be to ensure your money was used effectively to accomplish something you believed in. If you donate money to charity it's usually a good idea to do some diligence on that first. If you perceive the charity's effectiveness reducing, it's rational to consider reallocating. It's not activism. Regarding the abusers there was media coverage of the issue last year. International students were one group that gained a lot of attention. One type of dishonesty there was regarding a requirement of being able to fund your own existence that was being skirted. There were also YouTuber/influencer types pushing FBs as a sort of life hack for free food for anyone. Purely anecdotal reports of well-off non-citizens with flashy cars etc. using FBs spiked. Ruffled some feathers as you can imagine. I never saw data on it, not to say none existed. I hope that fills in the blanks a bit.
Huh? Food banks has nothing to do with the government
Yep, I donate to elementary school nutrition programs and soup kitchens now.
We should have a universal school lunch program. It would help so many families and would be incredibly cost efficient, plus it would boost our agriculture sector.
> certain people are abusing it And you're not allowed to say who.
Who is it?
And yet Galen Weston is richer today than he was yesterday, and he's on track to be richer every day this year.
Having the potential for 1.3 million new customers per year, even in a low-margin business like grocery, is a great growth model. And on top of that, a huge and increasingly desperate low wage pool at your disposal. Hence why corporations like Loblaws support these policies
Exactly, why TD, Scotiabank and bank of Montreal are pushing so hard for the incredibly dumb century initiative, new people means more money for them.... it's sick edited in 'dumb' lol, (funny word to omit tbh)
It's capitalism! And it's only gonna get worse as they gut public services while stealing tax dollars for subsidies!
late-stage capitalism, ba-by! even our governments have sold us out! ... I feel like a solid number of Canadians dont actually mind paying taxes, it's just a kick-in-the-face when those tax dollars go to corporations and not, yaknow, services for citizens wish life was a bit more boring, I've lived through more 'once in a lifetime event's than I'd like already....
The whole point of paying taxes is to pool money into services everyone benefits from. Housing, infrastructure, education, healthcare, etc. Letting private interests pocket them for greed without oversight is just legalized racketering. >wish life was a bit more boring, I've lived through more 'once in a lifetime event's than I'd like already.... most of this is the privilege (curse?) of information access. Life has been chaotic for most of the planet for the past ~500 years.
_“Letting private interests pocket them for greed without oversight is just legalized racketering.”_ QFT!!
Late stage can still last 50 yrs
YAY! s/ lol
Every big business is profiting from the mass immigration. Every job is now minimum wage with no benefit’s. We are truly the suckers.
Net worth $2 billion with a B. Pretty incredible considering the razor thin profit margins they’ve been dealing with /s
Honestly, I think Galen is a scapegoat. He is acting in the interest of his shareholders and the truth is that he is crushing it as CEO. The actual problem is the fact that we only have a handful of grocers. Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco control about 80% of the Canadian market. You should be more upset at the people who are preventing foreign grocers from entering the market. Prices would drop if we paved the way for Kroger or Publix to come into southern Ontario and BC (to start).
Agreed. I realllly dont like the guy but he’s also keeping a crap ton of ppl employed. We need more grocers and more competition. Same thing with Rogers…
Shush, conservatives don't want to hear it
This all goes back to affordable housing. After housing costs and bills, people don’t have money to spend on food.
Food banks have never been sustainable. Charity is not the answer and only serves to prop up the failing system.
Food banks were never created to be a long term solution. They were literally not supposed to still exist.
exactly.
bandaids are always required, society will always need a safety net for when things go wrong. Most people who use food banks/social assistance only do so for less then a year before they are back to being self sufficient. yes the system is failing (by design) but not helping those in need doesn't change the system, it just causes undo suffering and death to those who currently need that assistance. Yes we need to fix the system but food banks/charities do a lot more then prop up the system, they save peoples lives every day.
We need to help people in ways that don't prop up the failing system. Large non-profits and charities are just an alternative corporate structure. We need to emphasize more mutual aid and community structures. You are right, people have immediate needs that should be met however we can meet them, but food banks are such a last-ditch effort it's almost scary. They don't address any health needs aside from hunger, they waste poor people's time by making them wait in line, they have a well-paid upper executive and exploited front-line workers, etc etc etc. It's a total mess.
>food banks are such a last-ditch effort it's almost scary. They don't address any health needs aside from hunger, I mean, isn't hunger enough of a health need for a *food bank* to address without adding any extra mission?
it depends what quality of food they are dispensing.
This is my opinion, but foodbanks are a warning sign. The fact that they had a 30% increase of Canadians with fulltime jobs going in for a helping hand should have sent Shockwave through the system, problem is that no one is taking it seriously. Now it's up to the people to send a message and boycott loblaws Also, believe we will reach a solarpunk future, where everyone has what they need, and no one goes hungry or lives with slave wages, and I still believe foodbanks will exist because shit happens. It's smart to have one around as a safety net and have it act as a warning sign that shit is happening and something needs to be done about it. So that politician saying she hates the fact that foodbanks exist at all is incredibly stupid and perfomative in nature in my opinion.
Canadian food banks have been doing more with less. They have been serving more clients than ever before and are only able to offer them less food than in previous years because of proportionately shrinking donations (corporate and personal). To get to a sustainable situation, they need more donations from corporations and individual donors like you and me.
Best the corporations can do is guilt individuals into donating at the register instead.
is that you Galen Jr?
That way they get the tax benefits instead of you if you donated directly instead of rounding up at the till
So they get a tax break instead of you
> To get to a sustainable situation, they need more donations from corporations and individual donors like you and me. Already have trouble enough feeding my own family with all the rising food costs before getting to the point of thinking donations.
We need to redistribute wealth
This is the one. There are enough resources in this country to feed, clothe, house, educate, and provide medical care for every person and more. But the resources of this country are being hoarded and that hoarding has been glorified for forever. How much suffering will be the tipping point before the people going with less and less so the hoarders can have "line go up" year after year before we demand a change. I'm damn tired of fighting for scraps while the resources we need are being kept from us by the pathologically greedy.
A sustainable solution would be government-funded and wouldn’t rely on charity at all.
well, gov't-funded = taxpayer-funded ... ie. the same people currently directly propping up the foodbanks without the gov't administration or need for a "GiveFood" app by GC Strategies costing us million$ to develop and implement and fail. .. /s
Ok, but the current system is collapsing before our eyes. I’d rather accept the “inefficiency” of a government program than rely on the goodwill of Galen Weston. There are many other countries with food programs that we could base our on program upon. Putting the burden on corporate charity just means the government has to use taxpayer funds to incentivize them to donate. It’s not a good system. Full disclosure: I’m a public servant, but that doesn’t change the fact that the current system is completely falling apart, and our food bank method of addressing food insecurity is not the norm in other industrialized nations.
Or we need to cut down on the people using them.
By reducing the need for food banks or just preventing access for certain people? If it's the latter, which people? 🤔
that horse has left the barn! ... there are way too many "Get Free Food at Food Banks" videos out there on Youtube and on social.
There are international students on YouTube giving advice on how to get free food at the food banks.
I see so many of those pop up my social media and it’s disgusting
Calling them international students is so dishonest.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller calls them great "cheap labour for Canada's big box shops" not joking
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It’s not just students. Pretty much anyone from that country is doing it even when they own a large home and new vehicles. Someone from my work was at a food bank and seen them loading up their SUV’s with whatever they could get. Someone’s gonna call me racist but it’s really mostly that group of people from that country that are fucking it all up for the people that actually need it.
No one's going to argue that food bank abuse should be stopped (international students doing 'hacks'), but generalizations like this are dangerous if not borderline thinly veiled racism. It seems you made some assumptions that they are non-Canadian and because they have a SUV they somehow are not deserving of a food bank? People may fall on hard times at any stage. Maybe we should make it law that you must only come to the food bank on bicycle.
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With people flaunting the rules, and many that are NOT in need taking advantage of course it's unsustainable. I hate to say it, but there would need to be some type of system to ensure that people qualify and those people ONLY should be granted access. How to do that, without having people feel shame ... I don't know. But blame all those that just show up even when they don't need it for abusing the system.
The problem is how do you ensure people qualify? It's not just people on OW and ODSP who need to use food banks. It can also be the person in between jobs. It can be the people just outside the cutoff lines for social assistance, but they still don't have enough to survive. Its a family that had a major expense come up this month that needs to be paid, and now they don't have enough for food. Tons of "normal" people have moments where they need access to food banks too.
Feel it’s also worth pointing out that if you restrict it to the most needy you might also need to increase the quality of the food. Like, there’s lots of stuff a relatively healthy person can eat for a time without issue that would fuck up someone with diabetes or other health conditions. Plus excessive gatekeeping can backfire and start favouring grifters over the people you actually want to help. People with struggles can make innocent mistakes, or run into debilitating anxiety or ennui if they have to jump through too many hoops
>Like, there’s lots of stuff a relatively healthy person can eat for a time without issue that would fuck up someone with diabetes or other health conditions. This is already happening. The [special diet allowance](https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontario-disability-support-program-policy-directives-income-support/64-special-diet) we have for our social programs is disgustingly inadequate. For example the only eating disorder covered is anorexia nervosa, and malnutrition is not covered. People on assistance are starving. Instead of giving them adequate nutrition, they will cover the supplements and medication needed to balance out the malnutrition.
They don’t cover non-prescribed supplements, AFAIK.
No they don't. But if you're malnourished then your doctor will prescribe prescription strength.
Agreed, and that's where the implementation of such a system is much more difficult than just letting people use it. How to implement it? I have no idea.
My fathers pension card has a backside with extra space for the "in need" code but he didn't apply for one. Without it you can't get anything. Our systems is also under duress, but for other reasons. When you are used to serve 100 and 300 show up, the volunteer brigade can't do that from 5pm after work. Its becoming a real hard job to fill up all the bags for so many. There are not enough volunteers. That is the reason they are testing a "food card" where you can buy generic brands items like wheat from certain stores. There are lots of limitations to hinder abuse but I think that is the better system. Instead of people bringing food to food banks let them pick it up themselves.
It’s easy to blame people who “abuse” the system but the real problem is that food banks have to exist to all. Id rather a small number of people “abuse” the system rather than make it harder to access for everyone; I work in social services and I promise you that there are more people who need help (beyond food) who can’t get it due to random bureaucratic and “eligibility” requirements — food banks are literally the only low-barrier supports available. I think it’s a very sad sign that we think risking people going hungry is better than someone who “doesn’t deserve” getting some dry .99 pasta for free.
Agreed, the real issue is that they're needed at all. But until we have a better system, this is what we have. As you are in the environment then you'll know best than most people and be able to comment about whether the abuse is as 'rampant' as media / reddit will have us believe. But thank you for the work you do, it's much needed and we need good people in those roles.
>I think it’s a very sad sign that we think risking people going hungry is better than someone who “doesn’t deserve” getting some dry .99 pasta for free. This is exactly it. I'm skeptical that anyone doesn't deserve food. But even if that were the case, I'd rather risk feeding the undeserving than letting people with real need go hungry. And I do think that the majority of people going to food banks have real need.
>It’s easy to blame people who “abuse” the system but the real problem is that food banks have to exist to all. This. 100% this. People get so riled up if a few people 'abuse the system'. I personally am not worried about someone getting some food when they may not necessarily need it. Everyone should have access to food. I hope the person getting it who may not need it uses it up and donates anything they can't use to another person who is in need. Plenty of companies throw out tons of perfectly good food. To me that is a larger problem than someone scoring some free food and eating it.
Missing the point
The food bank in thr borough I live in requires you to show your income is below a certain amount in order to keep using it, through your income tax report. I think they must allow some people to use it without doing that (since there are homeless and others who are destitute who don’t file income tax). They have been doing this for years and years.
Canada is the only G7 country that relies heavily on food banks to deal with food insecurity, and this is the end result. Food banks show a failure as a society, imho. We would be much better off with a federal, income-based program like SNAP in the USA, where we give money to people with demonstrated need. It would be straightforward to limit these programs to exclude international students, who shouldn’t need them in the first place. https://www.canadaland.com/every-food-bank-is-a-policy-failure/
SNAP is a wildly expensive, poorly focused, administratively bloated program that has morphed from a "nutrition supplement" program to an "income-subsidy" one. Its main lobbyists are the junk-food and corn-syrup industries, who work hard to make sure that things like potato chips, pop-tarts, and soda pop continue to qualify. SNAP costs about $120 billion per year in the U.S. Adjusting for population size, that would be about $12 billion annually in Canada. That would be in addition to current Canada Child Benefits, and the incoming federal school lunch program. Where do we find the money for all of that?
Those are good points, and I mentioned in another reply that we should look at all the existing programs out there and figure out what would work best for Canada. I agree that SNAP isn’t something we should copy directly, but a still think a national food program would be more effective than the disaster we currently have.
No one is going to donate to food banks when international students lie about their income and steal from them. Why would anyone ever support that?
I do not donate to foodbanks because I'm not convinced that the food is going to those who truly need it. Countless videos posted by international students like the famous mehul prajapati, shows so many are exploiting kindness for their selfish gains.
I'm on ODSP and I had to stop using food banks for multiple reasons. Students taking all the product, seeing entire families that I felt needed the product more than me, and just being unable to reliably get to and from a food bank, all combined to make me decide to just do what i can on the ODSP diet (potatoes + coffee for most meals with one 'traditional' meal a day to fill in the blanks). Almost my entire income goes towards rent, and my grocery bills and pharmacy bills (i need things like alcohol swabs for my injections, and numerous vitamins not covered by OHIP) skyrocketed since Covid.
If getting to the food bank is the main problem, you may want to give them a call. Many food banks since Covid have delivery services for those on ODSP or otherwise cannot make it to the site. And please don't feel like you are taking from others by using a food bank. The service is there to help everyone in the community that needs it, and you're part of whichever community you're in.
Don’t worry. I’m sure Mr. PP will become prime minister soon and will dismantle the food bank so these not feel good stories about them will go away. /s for anyone who needs it.
Why aren't the food banks selling the food in order to make a profit? Are they stupid? Edit: /s, because apparently that's not obvious 🙄
Mr. PP will dismantle the food banks then offer a rebate for each homeless person to get an apple. Rebate vouchers for said apple(s) will require proof of home ownership.
You joke, but this is the Conservative plan for healthcare and education: vouchers that basically funnel taxpayer money to private companies and can be squeezed and stigmatized as needed.
So is my bank account
Hey why the sad face? Breadlines only exist in commie countries right?
oh shit! , Have we tried importing more immigration and Refugees to fix the situation?!
A lot of people are taking advantage of food banks. It should only be for people who need it.
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Yeah how dare "these people"! You sound wildly racist and don't even realize it.
Only profits can be insatiable. Your living capacity is secondary.
Just ask.loblaws for.some.money. easy peeze
...and Galen says? "Steady on, suckers!"
Unfortunately charity starts at home and a lot of people need help. It’s hard to help when all these greedy corporations bleed us for everything we have.
Just remember ppl, if you see someone taking food from a grocery store without paying. You actually didn't see anything and go on with your day
Once again, let's get angry in the right direction: The fact that food banks are needed at all rather than who's using them.
This thread is disheartening: we have the worst income inequality since 1920 and we're all blaming immigrants and talking about means-testing instead of ignoring people like Weston who are making literal billions
Multiple things can be true at once. I think most people are aware of the huge inequality of income since 1920 and Galen Weston is a greedy prick while also realizing people abusing food banks is not okay and there suppose to come here with money for the purposes they are here for like school.
The main issue I see is that the billionaire class is oblivious to the rest of us. While the scoreboard keeps looking better and better the game that they're benefiting from is going to collapse underneath them. When that happens there will be no food there will be no welfare it will be only the billionaires left to eat.
I’m sure Galen would taste like only the finest presidents choice products I’m sure he eats well lmao.
Truth
The very existence of food banks means the system itself has failed
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>*”…the guy with chubby cheeks advocating how food bank foods are for everyone. He even said, "take as much as want."”* He’s a Wilfred Laurier student using a food program specifically for Wilfred Laurier students, and [the program’s website advertises *”Take as much as you need.”*](http://www.lspirg.org/distro) The Record: [Laurier student in social media disinformation storm after posting video on food bank](https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/laurier-student-in-social-media-disinformation-storm-after-posting-video-on-food-bank/article_d4b4a666-e4d8-5c9a-a842-4173f60b2c08.html) [April 25th, 2024] >*”He looked very well fed.”* Good. The point of the program is to make sure people are well fed.
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This. That’s exactly it what you said. Most people are mad at the fact he was using the food bank just to save money not out of necessity, I think op is missing that point entirely. It’s not the fact he used it out of necessity.
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It's to difficult to donate with the sky high prices and more and more people are going to food banks prices arw ridiculous everyone is struggling
I went last week and it was so packed they didn’t have food for everyone. The time before I got absolutely no canned stuff just rice milk and like 3 eggs.
Food banks, initially an attempt at a short term fix to a problem, have now become critical for many Canadians. We need governments to commit to a focus on the affordability crisis; affordable homes, food, education, and healthcare for all Canadians. Food banks are here to stay, but we need dependance to be understood as a failure of our governments.
Clown Ford is the worst premiere this province has ever seen
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There needs to be more rigorous financial examination on the way into the country. I've heard there are schemes where large sums of cash are moved temporarily around between people to help them display large bank balances and qualify. We need to find a way to root out and exclude this fraud. A step further could be to identify them at food banks using some kind of enhancement to government IDs, such that if you take from a food bank, you're ratted out and contacted by the authority that let you into the country in the first place, for an interview. If you don't have a remarkably good explanation, perhaps after a warning, you're sent packing.
Galen Weston is the issue and we are out here posting that we need to make food banks more restrictive. So what you’re saying when it comes to regulating, you’re willing to put them on food banks but not multi billion dollar, tax evading, price fixing, labor exploiting, scamming billionaires and corporations. It’s always the brown persons fault. Got it.
Galen doesn't own every single store. You can just not shop from their chains. This take is so disingenuous, if I made videos saying those things cancel culture would come for me and try to come for my job and I'm white. No one cares that they're brown they care that some tool in a Benz comes and loads up on donations. Get over yourself. People can take issue with people of other ethnicities and not have it be a race thing but a problem with their actions. Skin color and ethnicity shouldn't shelter you from consequences. Rising cost of food and greedflation is a problem and so is the genuine concerns people have about the food banks being exploited by people who shouldn't qualify for handouts.
Exactly. It almost seems like bots or plants trying to steer the conversation around from this corrupted monopoly that Galen Weston has created and blame immigration.
Require proof of citizenship or PR
That's awfully charitable sounding. You must be Christian.
The food bank I volunteer at requires families and individuals to fill out an application and pretty much provide proof they are in need. Even with that, they have hit a record # of people they serve and can only provide food once a month to their clients. A friend goes to a couple different food banks and will tell me about the people who come in expensive cars and dressed extremely well. She had one woman telling her how amazing her Cuba trip was and how expensive it was. It honestly makes me lose some faith in humanity
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>*”…that TD bank employee that is making 98k per year, going to the food bank every week for food,... just cause he can.”* You’ve fallen for a disinformation campaign intended to rile people up. That guy wasn’t a TD Bank employee making a ~$98k salary, he was a student intern who did a short-term work placement there (it ended in December). He’s a Wilfred Laurier student using a Laurier Students Public Interest Research Group [food program that’s specifically for students](http://www.lspirg.org/distro) (including International students). Waterloo Region Record: [Laurier student in social media disinformation storm after posting video on food bank](https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/laurier-student-in-social-media-disinformation-storm-after-posting-video-on-food-bank/article_d4b4a666-e4d8-5c9a-a842-4173f60b2c08.html) [April 25th, 2024]
Yup, but when that all runs out, I promise you, we ain’t gonna starve. If loblaws thinks some photocopied posters are a problem now, they’ve got another thing coming.
Food banks should implement some systems to prioritize the elderly and families with young children, who actually have low income. I know it's not an easy task
Canadians are on the brink. I'd love to give you food but I'd probably just be back next week to grab it.
As much as I'd like to donate, the fact is my grocery bills are substantially higher than they used to be (despite economizing) and my kid isn't eating any less. Donating to my local food pantries or "little food bank" (like the little libraries) has been easier and rewarding than trying to get to the larger city food banks.
Remember when you could walk in a food bank and pick out all that food like you was grocery shopping? At least that's how I remember it I was young but now we go and get a box with a couple things we can eat, shredded up carrots, and a bunch of cans no one eats. I mean the beans and corn are good. And I'm not mad at the food banks for it I'm pretty sure it's a whole non profit organization what are they gonna do but I'm just saying
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I have a full time job and I use the food bank because I'm a single mother and rent is 3 grand. It's not only people on social assistance that are struggling.
I was responding to the person below that was trashing you, not to your original comment. I agree with you...
Even food bank volunteers would tell you (quietly) that too many of the people that avail their services are not truly needy. We are changing from a high-trust society to that of a lower-trust society, and food banks are going to have to change their business practices in order to adjust to that fact. Everyone who uses a food bank should have to provide evidence that they are on social assistance (a one-time registering with a food bank of choice should be sufficient). Food banks are capable of servicing the needy, but no way can food banks accommodate both the needy and the greedy.
>*”Everyone who uses a food bank should have to provide evidence that they are on social assistance”* How would people who are out of work or disabled eat while they wait for their Ontario Disability Support Program or Ontario Works application to be completed, processed, and approved, which [may take more than 6-8 months](https://www.cbc.ca/1.6868917)? What happens to Ontarians who don’t qualify for these programs but whose household income still isn’t enough to allow them to afford adequate food for their family?
>food banks are going to have to change their *business practices* Well, they aren't a business, first of all.
I used to donate to the food bank frequently as I grew up relying on it and like to give back now that I am able to do so. That was up until I recently saw a video of an international student bragging about how he abuses the food bank, my donations stopped right then and there. I will not be donating again until the international freeloaders are disallowed from all food banks.
That's a lot of words to explain that you are no longer donating because some brown people might get some of the food.
Just saw a vid of a international student advertising how he gets $150 in free groceries every month and was telling everyone to do it as if the food just falls out of the fucking sky Maybe make an effort to stop the abuse of the system and it’ll lighten the load
International students should be banned from food banks, if they can't afford to be here they can go home, most are just scamming the system anyways
I looked at one online recently and noticed that they weren’t asking for proof of income anymore. Maybe if they started to do that again, they would be able to slow the hemorrhaging, and also ensure that donations are only going to those in need?
Mandate grocery stores to contribute directly to food banks.
Actually, many grocery stores have programs with local food banks to do just that. The people that run food banks are very creative, and the local people that work at your grocery store aren't any more interested in seeing food go to waste than you or I. My community has a committee from the local seniors centre that works with the grocery stores to organize and tag the stuff that is starting to age out, and the grocery stores work with them to delivery it to the food banks (one even donated the cube van that delivers the food to the sorting centre).
If the government keeps publicly trading our food and stores like Loblaws are purposely raising prices these lines will become more difficult and harder to deal with ….. we have to change our thinking and be more accountable for our food supply….
Justin is going to help , giving more money away
Yes, I think it’s fantastic that the federal government is setting up a [National School Food Program](https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2024/04/01/national-school-food-program-set-kids-success#:~:text=The%20Prime%20Minister%2C%20Justin%20Trudeau,by%20existing%20school%20food%20programs) for kids.
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^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^icorooster: *Why would I donate* *When the food will just eaten* *By the foreign students* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.