There’s a growing sense of discontent amongst a group of retirees determined to get laid off — from volunteering at food banks.
Freedom 90 is an advocacy group started in Ontario that has spread throughout the country made up of vocal seniors, many in their 60s and 70s, who want to retire from volunteering at food banks and soup kitchens before they turn 90.
Ironically, their end goal is to make obsolete the food charities they helped create and continue to sustain.
The unlikely group is made up of older, generally affluent people equipped with a lifetime of wisdom and nothing to lose.
“Go ahead, fire us,” said Yvonne Kelly, a Freedom 90 member. “Take away our wages because we’re all volunteers anyways and we want to see the end of this need for food banks.”
“We see ourselves as a different voice,” said Freedom 90’s Marsha Fox. “We’re the people on the front lines of food banks. We meet the people who come in, and we’re the ones faced with figuring out what to do when the food supply is dropping but you have an increased number of people showing up. We’re becoming the police force for food banks.”
Joan Stonehocker is a Freedom 90 member who’s been writing reports on the demographics of food insecure people since the 1980s.
Stonehocker said it feels like she writes the same report every year.
“Despite going to food banks people are still very food insecure,” she said. “We’ve got to stop the madness of running these food banks when they aren’t solving the problem.”
Freedom 90 has two demands: they want government to raise social assistance rates to sufficient levels so people can provide food for themselves and they want government to take meaningful action making food banks unnecessary — and they want it to happen in their lifetime.
But Parksville Qualicum MLA Michelle Stilwell, Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation, said it’s not that easy.
“I understand there are a lot of people who would like us to increase the social assistance rates. It’s something we continue to monitor and would like to do in the long term. At the moment, we are just not in a financial position to do so,” Stilwell told The NEWS in an e-mail Sunday.
“What we can do is create opportunities through education, skills training and well-paying jobs to help give people a hand up to help themselves secure a better long term future.”
Stilwell said she “wholeheartedly” agrees food banks are not a long-term solution to hunger.
“Even though B.C. is home to some of the most comprehensive supports in Canada for low-income people and their families… it only takes one child to go hungry to know we are not doing enough,” she said.
According to Food Banks B.C. executive director Laura Lansink, more than 30,000 children are using food banks in British Columbia every month — a statistic she called “disturbing.”
A report released by First Call: B.C. Children and Youth Advocacy Coalition last month showed 20.4 per cent of British Columbian children under 18 years of age are living below the poverty line, representing one in five children in the province.
There are now 97 food banks operating in B.C. and still, it’s not enough with nearly 60 per cent of those organizations reporting an increase in usage over the last year.
“To address food insecurity, you need to address why individuals and families are food insecure and two major concerns are the need for affordable housing and a well-paying job, which is why I believe we need to help British Columbians get the skills they need for the jobs of today,” said Stilwell.
“No one wants to see people living in poverty and I truly believe a good-paying job — one that provides people with dignity, respect and opportunity — creates an important foundation.”
But Alberni Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser said job creation is not the answer to this problem.
“The job thing is a slogan of a government that won’t acknowledge there’s a problem,” Fraser told The NEWS.
“I applaud those groups who are stepping forward to try and help and the people donating to food banks and soup kitchens but these are signs that the government is failing. These organizations are only there because the government isn’t doing their job.”
Fraser wants to see a poverty reduction strategy — what that would entail, he admits he isn’t quite sure because he can’t get the green light from government to move forward with it.
He said all levels of government should be acknowledging food insecurity instead of shifting the burden of responsibility to society.
“People are rolling up their sleeves and finding solutions, a lot of people are donating, especially this time of the year but this issue isn’t seasonal, it’s systemic,” said Fraser. “We have the highest child poverty rate and the lowest minimum wage.”
Courtenay Alberni MP Gord Johns echoed Fraser’s sentiments saying his election campaign was based on “the systemic issues driving people to food banks.”
“We’ve turned the page on a government denying the realities of inequality and the impact that has on our communities,” said Johns. “We know the last government was deaf to dealing with these issues. We’re very hopeful we can work with this new government to come up with policies to close the gap, tackle inequality and make sure people have access to nutritious and healthy foods.”
Johns said it’s “disappointing” to see the ramifications of inadequate social assistance rates and stagnant minimum wage in the face of rising costs of living.
“Really the whole system is broken and we need to find ways to empower people,” he said, noting he is “absolutely” in favour of an increase in social assistance, disability and old age security benefits, on top of $15 minimum wage and $15/day childcare.
Society of Organized Services (SOS) executive director Renate Sutherland is well versed in helping people in need in Parksville Qualicum Beach.
Sutherland said the SOS gives out food vouchers so people can choose their own groceries allowing for more fresh fruits and vegetables — and dignity.
“It’s been steady for the last two or three years,” she said of how many vouchers are distributed each month. “But the numbers are very high.”
Sutherland said SOS clients are often choosing between medication or rent; hydro or food.
“Do I wish that they (food banks and food charity) would go away, that nobody ever needed them? Absolutely. But they have become a part of the Canadian fabric… and I think they serve a good purpose,” she said. “There’s a certain part of the population that will never be able to work full time… There are people who have physical and mental health issues who just aren’t able to hold down a full time position, so what about those people? A higher minimum wage isn’t going to change that.”
Sutherland said food insecurity is everybody’s responsibility.
“At the end of the day, whether it’s government or whether it’s individuals, it’s all of us because the government really is us as taxpayers. So, if we say to government ‘you need to do more,’ which would be wonderful, where is that money going to come from? It’s going to come from us as taxpayers. So if we’re paying more in taxes and you’re already a low income worker it’s kind of a vicious circle so I think it’s all of our responsibilities,” she said.
“My sense is we all live in this community together and these are our residents (using food charity), these people are someone’s mother, daughter, son, uncle… and all people deserve to have food to eat. I don’t think in this day and age, in this community, we should allow people to starve.”
Nanoose Bay’s Lorraine Pearson doesn’t want to see people starve either.
As a senior of a fixed income, she said she wants nothing more than to see her out of town children and grandchildren this Christmas, but sadly with the rising cost of food she just won’t be able to afford the luxury.
Last week, Pearson was en route home from volunteering with the Nanoose Elf program, wrapping gifts for children in-need for the holiday season, when she noticed something unsettling.
Nanoose Place’s public announcement board was cluttered with the usual notices — a lost dog poster, a bike for sale advertisement, a Christmas concert promotion.
But amidst the posts Pearson found an anonymous letter that said: “If you ever wonder how a person with disabilities manages to live with $900 a month, the answer is: we don’t live. We suffer, we starve, we get depressed… to the point of wanting to end it all… it’s human cruelty.”
• See Part 1: Food bank use on the rise in B.C.
• See Part 2: Qualicum Beach woman turns to food bank
