[[posterous-content:gHBkpwhoipkFwvJdyhIt]]

Dear Premier McGuinty,

You propose to freeze social assistance rates in your budget.

The Ontario Disability Support Program provides just $1064 a month and Ontario Works just $599 a month – leaving many people with no money for food after paying their rent! After inflation -in the past year, food prices have gone up 4.9% and electricity 8.9%; and rents can increase 3% this year.

The freeze on social assistance rates is a cut.

This budget does nothing to close the growing gap between rich and poor. The freeze on MPP salaries is a token measure, and corporations and wealthy CEOs face no tax increase.

I support an immediate increase to put food in the budget of people on social assistance.

I support a small tax increase on people earning over $200,000 a year.

I believe public services should not be cut at a time when the rich are getting richer.

Your budget appears to abandon your commitment to reduce poverty.

Maintain your commitment to reduce poverty and increase social assistance rates immediately!

[[posterous-content:sxAfbxDtomehcnvBFwAG]][[posterous-content:fJJzICCmJzxstpeiopkD]]

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR SURVEY LEAFLET!

TAKE THE SURVEY!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                               NOVEMBER 17, 2010

Toronto, Ont. – Just hours before a report released yesterday showed food bank usage

climbing to an all-time high across Canada, one hundred and fifty people attended a

rally to Put Food in the Budget at the Wychwood Barns at 601 Christie St. in

Toronto.  Monday night’s crowd heard from some of the community leaders that

completed the “Do the Math Challenge” and lived for a week on a diet similar to that

of many people in Ontario receiving social assistance.

Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario told the capacity crowd that taking the

challenge had “strengthened our union’s solidarity,” with every Ontarian who lives

with an inadequate diet.  “The truth is there are low waged, part time or temporary

workers, some of them union members, who also have to rely on food banks.  When we

build solidarity in our communities between those on social assistance, workers,

church groups, and people concerned for fairness and social justice, politicians can

no longer ignore poverty in our province.

Anglican Archbishop Colin Johnson said “This campaign has underscored for me the urgency of

tackling the root causes of poverty.  Many other Anglicans feel the same as me.  Following

their poverty diet, they are organizing meetings with their MPP, writing to their MPP,

expressing their concern about the tragedy of widespread poverty and calling for action,

starting with the $100 per month increase in social assistance.”

One thousand people around Ontario have taken the Do the Math Challenge in eighteen

communities around Ontario.  They tell us that on average they speak with one

hundred people during the week.  That means one hundred thousand people have had a

conversation in the last two months about the inadequacy of social assistance.  “We

thought this would be a one week campaign in the first week of October” said

provincial co-ordinator Mike Balkwill.  “But it has a momentum of its own.  Every

week a new group calls me to become involved.”

Tracy Mead, a member of the Put Food in the Budget leadership team, whose income is

social assistance, said “Ask yourself if you could survive on $585.00 a month, take

the Do the Math Challenge, then try to look me in the eye and honestly say

everything is ok.  Winning this campaign means that we can all hold our heads high.

I’m proud to be a part of this fight and I demand change”.

Diana Stapleton, chair of the Weston Area Emergency Food Bank invited the crowd to

join her in making raising social assistance rates a voting issue.  “This is a

voting matter to me.  I will walk away from supporting the Liberal party if this

government does not take the initiative to increase social assistance and disability

benefits.”

Avvy Go of the Colour of Poverty asked what we have to do to convince

politicians to deal with the situation of chronic hunger in Ontario.  “The right to

eat – access to enough healthy food – is as essential as the right to breathe – what

do we have to do to convince them …. have a ‘hold our breath campaign’?”

The Put Food in the Budget has been working with groups across Ontario to raise

awareness of the inadequacy of social assistance benefits and the health impact

facing people who cannot access nutritious food due to poverty.  The province-wide

network continues to ask the Ontario government to immediately increase social

assistance by $100 a month for every adult in Ontario receiving social assistance as

a first step towards inadequacy of social assistance rates.  A single person in

Ontario still receives only $585 per month for rent, food and everything else.

The rally encouraged ongoing mobilization across the province in the months ahead to

keep the issue of poverty on the political agenda and to put food in the budget.

For More information visit www.putfoodinthebudget.ca

Media Contact:

Mike Balkwill, Co-ordinator, Put Food in the Budget Campaign,

416 806 2401, mbalkwill@iasc.on.ca

About the Put Food in the Budget Campaign

Thirty communities across Ontario – from Windsor to Cornwall and from Toronto to

Thunder Bay are part of the Put Food in the Budget campaign.  The campaign is

sponsored by the Social Planning Network of Ontario and The Stop Community Food

Centre and is supported by ACTRA Toronto; Anglican Diocese of Toronto; Association

of Ontario Health Centres; Colour of Poverty; CUPE Ontario; OPSEU; Registered

Nurses’ Association of Ontario; and the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario.

About The Do The Math Challenge

Do the Math is an interactive website (www.dothmath.thestop.org) launched by The

Stop Community Food Centre to draw attention to the impossible budgeting choices

faced by social assistance recipients in Ontario. The recent “Do the Math Challenge”

- part of the campaign to Put Food in the Budget - asks everyday Ontarians to try to

survive on a food bank hamper to draw attention to the chronic food insecurity faced

by social assistance recipients in our province.

To Follow Us, Click Here!

Joanna Lavoe

InsideToronto.com

Beaches-East York MPP Michael Prue munched on a peanut butter sandwich for lunch Tuesday, Oct. 5 as the majority of his colleagues in the Ontario Legislature dug into a scrumptious turkey dinner with all the fixings.

The local Member of Provincial Parliament is taking part in a week-long welfare diet called the Do the Math Challenge. From Oct. 3 to 9 Prue will only eat what a single adult would receive in a typical food bank hamper.

The items in his basket of goods include: a loaf of bread, two boxes of macaroni and cheese, a small jar of peanut butter, a cup of rice, a medium potato, a small onion, a can of mixed vegetables, a can of pork and beans, a can of tuna, seven tea bags, a can of pineapple tidbits, two cans of mushroom soup, three drink boxes of apple juice, three oatmeal-to-go bars, three single-serving packs of instant oatmeal and a litre of milk.

"It's what the food bank gives out to a single person looking for food and what it is is a lot of starch," Prue said, adding the majority of underhoused or homeless people don't have access to refrigerators so canned goods are their only option.

"I don't blame the food banks. They give out what they get."

To Read More Click Here!

Local News

By CAROL MULLIGAN THE SUDBURY STAR

Four days into her Do the Math challenge diet, Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas is hungry for anything green -- or red or orange or yellow, for that matter -- as long as it is a fresh fruit or vegetable.

"I could really go for some raw carrots right now, no problem," said the New Democrat Health critic about suppertime Tuesday.

Gelinas is one of about two dozen Sudburians taking part in a challenge, in which residents are asked to eat for a week from a three-day emergency food bank basket, to find out what it is like to live on social assistance or low incomes.

In Sudbury, the initiative is being run by the Do the Math Organizing Committee under the auspices of the Social Planning Council of Sudbury.

The premise of the challenge is many social assistance recipients have to choose between necessities, such as rent and clothing and nutritious food, with the latter often being given short shrift.

Often people must resort to emergency baskets from food banks to tide them over, particularly the last week of the month.

"It's something everybody should try," said a hungry Gelinas about the challenge.

To read more, click here!

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Monday 4 October 2010 Lundi 4 octobre 2010

ORAL QUESTIONS

SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

Mr. Michael Prue: My question is to the Premier. Five NDP caucus members, including myself, are supporting the Put Food in the Budget campaign and will live on one bag of food-bank food for the week. We are doing this to understand the hardship faced by thousands of Ontarians who have to survive on social assistance rates as low as $2 a day. Even government members agree that rates are inadequate.

Will the Premier join us this week and live on a food-bank diet to better understand the utter inadequacy of social assistance rates in this province?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Children and Youth Services.

Hon. Laurel C. Broten: I’m pleased to stand and speak to this issue and I was pleased to stand beside my Premier last week as we launched the campaign at Daily Bread Food Bank for their Thanksgiving food drive. I congratulate the Daily Bread Food Bank, which has worked in my home community for many, many years.

We’re absolutely committed to combating poverty in Ontario. We thank all the community partners, the poverty reduction advocates and everyone who continues to raise issues. I’ve had an opportunity myself to go on to the Do the Math website. What I say to the member opposite is that it highlights the need for the work that our government has been doing already through our poverty reduction strategy.

We took a bold step. We introduced the poverty reduction strategy, where we outlined a plan to reduce the number of kids living in poverty by 25% by 2013. We have a plan and the plan is working despite these tough economic times and despite the lack of support from the—

1110

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. Supplementary?

Mr. Michael Prue: I had asked the Premier whether he’d go on the diet. Perhaps the minister can answer that, too.

Social assistance rates have fallen by about 30% since 1994. Recipients are forced to rely on food bank handouts to try to get through the month, yet the McGuinty government refuses to acknowledge that it is impossible to live a healthy life on their inadequate social assistance rates. The government provides a child benefit, but cuts the special diet allowance and claws back basic assistance so recipients are never, never better off.

Why won’t this minister, this Premier and the cabinet join me and my colleagues and live on a welfare diet for just one week?

Hon. Laurel C. Broten: On this side of the House, we’re about taking positive action steps to help Ontarians living in poverty. On the opposite side of the House, they’re a lot of talk.

We accelerated the phase-in of the OCB two full years ahead of schedule and they voted against it. We introduced full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds. We’ve ensured tax fairness for low-income families, removing 90,000 low-income Ontarians off the tax rolls, and they voted against it. They voted against our six increases to social assistance rates. They voted against our creation of 22,000 new affordable child care spaces. They voted against stabilizing the rent bank. They voted against raising the minimum wage. They voted against 90,000 low-income Ontarians off the tax rolls.

We’re taking positive steps. We have a strong plan. We’re committed to reducing child poverty in this province. We take steps every day, and we’d like to see actual support from the party opposite—

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. New question.

October 4, 2010
Dear Archbishop Johnson and Ms. Grinspun,
Thank you so much for your letter inviting me to participate in the “Do The Math
Challenge”.
While I am not able to participate personally, I am very pleased to confirm that five of
my caucus colleagues will be participating – Cheri DiNovo, France Gélinas, Howard
Hampton, Paul Miller, and Michael Prue, the NDP critics for housing, health, food,
seniors, community and social services respectively.
Just has the NDP has led the fight at Queen’s Park for a decent minimum wage, I can
assure you that the NDP will stand at the front of the struggle for fair and livable social
assistance rates in Ontario.
All men, women and children in our province have the right to an income which allows
them to live with dignity and participate fully in our communities.
I commend and thank both of you, and all participants in the Do the Math Challenge, for
bringing attention to the utter inadequacy of social assistance rates in our province, and
for dedicating yourselves to building a fairer and more inclusive Ontario.
I do hope very much that my team will have an opportunity to meet with you so that we
can work together in securing an end to poverty in Ontario.
Sincerely,
Andrea Horwath, MPP
Leader, Ontario’s New Democrats