Parksville’s expansive waterfront is rivalled only by Qualicum Beach’s enchanting town centre dotted with cozy European-style cafes, boutique grocery stores and perfectly-manicured parks.
Just off the Island Highway connecting Parksville to Qualicum sits the Salvation Army food bank, housed in an unassuming, old building tucked behind a quaint sushi joint and aromatic German bakery.
Every month, this relatively small operation hands out food to approximately 400 households. Around Christmas time, that number is likely to double.
According to Food Banks Canada’s annual Hunger Count, food bank use in B.C. has skyrocketed by 28.1 per cent since the 2008 recession. Just this past year alone it rose by 2.8 per cent. Alarmingly, more than 30 per cent of food bank users are children.
As food banks continue to flourish, food insecurity — the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods — is also on the rise.
And according to Qualicum Beach author and emeritus professor Graham Riches, food banks may just be the driving force behind food insecurity.
“Without people really realizing it we’ve moved from a system of income security or income transfers and social security to a system of food transfers and food aid which is what you would expect in the Third World, but not in Canada,” Riches told The NEWS.
“The longer we have food charity and people supporting it and not asking critical questions about it we’re not going to find ways to ensure people are not hungry.”
The former UBC School of Social Work director said he has dedicated his life to researching food insecurity, publishing a book earlier this year First World Hunger Revisited: Food Charity or the Right to Food? where he argues food banks are an inadequate, ineffective, unethical response to hunger — and they’re shifting the burden of responsibility from government to society.
“Why are we having food bank drives? Yes, because people are hungry, or food insecure, but it’s not because there’s not enough food. It’s because people can’t access food,” he said, noting we live in a country with a well developed social safety net, arguably “the bread basket” of the world.
“It’s a problem of low wages, it’s a problem of underemployment, it’s a problem of inadequate social assistance benefits, and it’s a problem that if you live in the states as we do today where it’s all about minimum government and lower taxes, it’s about pushing these problems down onto municipalities, down to the lowest level.”
The first food bank in Canada opened in Edmonton in 1981. It was supposed to be a short-term response to the recession of the time.
“We imported (the idea of) food banks from the United States and what has happened over the years is we have socially constructed the issue of hunger as a matter for charity and not as a human rights issue or a matter for government,” Riches explained.
According to Simon Robinson’s Who banks on food banks in Canada, a 2014 discussion paper published by Put Food In The Budget, 200 million pounds of food is distributed by food banks in Canada every year, but that only meets nine per cent of the food needs of those who receive it.
Robinson’s research finds the monthly financial value of food received by recipients is $24.50, while a person would need $266 to purchase healthy, nutritious food.
“Food banks are dependent upon the generosity of our communities and often the sorts of things that get purchased and given to food banks aren’t the most nutritious,” said Island Health community health officer Dr. Paul Hasselback.
“Most food banks are familiar with the issues of quality in conjunction with quantity and are doing the best they can in an environment where they are dependent on the charitable generosity of community and they do a damn good job for what they have to work with.”
Riches said 60 per cent of people who use food banks are the “working poor,” meaning they have jobs or part-time jobs but aren’t earning enough to put food on the table.
Meanwhile, he said, only one in four food insecure Canadians will even use a food bank because of embarrassment, shame and stigma — adding it’s “morally wrong” to subject people to use food banks.
In First World Hunger Revisited Riches describes food banks as “degrading programmes to be used as a last resort…The ineffectiveness of charitable food banks is masked by their high degree of public legitimacy.”
“Food banks are an inadequate response to a very significant social issue and of course the backdrop to it is poverty and inequality,” he said. “It’s uncoordinated charity that’s doing the best it can but it doesn’t actually have the resources to address the problem.”
He believes it may need to start with a change in perspective.
“As Canadians, if we continue to believe by always wanting lower taxes we’re somehow going to solve this problem we are grossly mistaken,” said Riches.
According to Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation senior public affairs officer Sean Leslie, a single person on income assistance receives up to $610 every month.
The last time income assistance was raised was in April, 2007.
At that time, Leslie said it was raised by $50.
Before 2007, the last time income assistance was raised was in 1992.
“Prices have gone up, the cost of living has gone up and people can’t survive,” said Riches. “Clearly, government needs to be raising rates.”
Riches said inadequate income is the primary factor in food insecurity.
“The government has this information so why aren’t they using it? Well, because they don’t have the resources. Well, how could they have the resources when they keep lowering taxes?” he said. “Food is an intensely political matter, it’s not just a social matter.”
While Riches said there is solid evidence that food banks are failing the system, they continue to grow in popularity because people have “a moral imperative” to care for one another.
“We all do our best, but the problem nevertheless continues and actually increases,” he said. “What I think people in the food bank movement and people who give to food banks need to understand is that while they might be marginally alleviating some peoples’ need at a certain time, it’s not a long-term solution.”
Asked if he’d like to see food banks abolished tomorrow, Riches said “of course I’d abolish food banks, I think they bring shame on the country.” Asked what Canada would look like if food banks were abolished, he said “if federal and provincial governments did nothing and food banks weren’t there we would have immense destitution — but actually we do have immense destitution even though we have food banks.”
Riches said government needs to step up to the plate in order to address food insecurity. Under international law, Riches argues food insecurity is a government obligation.
“The evidence is clear,” Riches writes in his book. “Canada’s entrenched system of food charity has proven itself to be an ineffective response to household food insecurity and should be understood as part of the problem not the solution.”
However, he stopped short of asking people to stop donating to food banks.
“If people donate to food banks they should take it one step further,” he said.
“If you donate then you should be tweeting, or sending a postcard — or whatever people do these days — to (MLA) Michelle Stilwell, (MLA) Scott Fraser, (Premier) Christy Clark and (MP) Gord Johns saying ‘I’ve done my bit today to deal with this problem. Now what are you doing? Because this is a government responsibility, it’s your responsibility, it’s our collective responsibility because everyone is in this together and this is not an appropriate way to address hungry people in our communities.’”
• See Part 2: Qualicum Beach woman turns to food bank
• See Part 3: Sorting through the food crisis
