I have a full fridge - leftovers from a great roast beef dinner yesterday and my simulated food bank box beside my desk. I am so lucky. I am going to miss fresh fruit and meat buthave no doubts on my ability to survive only 5 days on mostly carbs and creativity. Others less fortunate did not eat so well yesterday and have a longer horizon to return to an adequate diet than my 5 days. As I put my $1.50 garbage bag tag on this morning I realized that for someone on social assistance that is the equivelant on 3 boxes of no-name mac and cheese. How many meals would that be? Add a bus ticket to get food and one to get back and you can see why the unfortunate are so visible at times. I have never met a person on social assistance that was proud to be on it. It is a struggle to survive. We hold up the abusers of the system as the poster child for what is wrong with the system but do not look for the ones trying to work within the system and have fallen through the cracks and we do not celebrate those who have made it out.
We need a big rethink - I'll be thinking a lot this week.
Cheers
Tim Lobzun - Ingersoll
Subscribe To Callmemit aka Tim Lobzun for Mayor of Ingersoll
Posts
Comments
Day 1 I forgot to eat lunch - I do that from time to time - I was busy going through over a hundred years of Lodge stuff preparing to vacate the Embro Lodge hall. I came home to the smell of hamburgers but could not have any- Opted for the Shrek Soup and crackers. I have a far better pile of food than the ones that got the box from the food bank. They got cookies but no crackers -I should have traded a box of Mac and cheese - Midnites tonight so PB sandwiches with no jam and maybe some dry cereal. Mayor Paul and Ted have a lot of events this week including the Mayor's Breakfast on Oct 6th - If they choose to eat at their functions it is not a lack of committment to the cause. They really think something must be done like all the folks who took up the challenge and even Mayor Harding who didn't take it up but supports it. We discussed what it would actually cost and I think something will be done. About 1500 folks in Oxford County rely on social assistance and even more use the food banks.
ReplyDeleteSomething else we talked about was when donating to the food bank - think nutrition if possible -
My soup and crackers were probably enough salt for an entire day.
Cheers!
Tim Lobzun