Giving back to your community
How you can help the Guelph Student FoodBank help Gryphons
Karen K. Tran
While the holidays may be advertised as a time of fun and excess, the reality of the season is that it isn’t a lot different from any other time of year. Those going through a hard time in November won’t suddenly have an easy December if everything remains the same. So, if you’re able to give back to your community in some way over the holidays, your generosity can make a huge difference to someone if not change the larger problem of food insecurity.
One local organization that you could donate to is the Guelph Student FoodBank (GSFB), a service that is for students, by students. This service is run by the Central Student Association (CSA), thanks to two staff and more than 80 volunteers. They provide confidential emergency food access, free cooking classes, and workshops to current undergraduate and graduate students, as well as those who have graduated from U of G in the last six months.“Many folks think it’s alright for students to be hungry, to live off of KD or peanut butter sandwiches, and some even have a ‘If I did, so can they’ mentality about being food insecure at university,” GSFB coordinator Sarah Vincett told The Ontarion in an email interview. “But it doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t be, that way. Students are equally as entitled to proper nutrition and access to quality foods as everyone else.”
Just as you cook a variety of meals and give yourself a treat every once in awhile, food bank visitors also deserve to enjoy their food. Before you donate, please ensure that the items haven’t expired.
“If you’re food insecure and the only food items available to you are expired, it may negatively impact your sense of self,” said Vincett. “Folks who are food insecure deserve fresh, healthy food.” The most useful donation you can make to a food bank is cash. Food banks can use this money to shop for their current demands and take advantage of sales at grocery stores.And while the holiday season is a great reminder to take care of others, organizations like the Guelph Student FoodBank provide their services all year-round, which means that they require volunteer help and donations year-round as well. Donations are hugely appreciated over the holidays, but please keep in mind that the need doesn’t end when winter does. Consider donating regularly throughout the year.
“While it’s important to support food banks,” Vincett said, “it’s also important to take a critical look at the systemic inequalities that create situations resulting in folks being food insecure and to advocate for their change.”
The Guelph Student FoodBank is located at 620 Gordon St. at the Federal Annex Building on campus, and is open Monday to Friday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the fall and winter semesters, and Tuesday to Thursday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. during the summer months from May to August.
Donation items that the GSFB and other food banks appreciate include:
- Rice
- Canned tuna
- Pasta sauce
- Canned soup
- Tomato paste
- Personal hygiene items
Many food banks will also accept:
- Spices
- Individually packaged snacks
- Treats such as chocolates
Are food banks a “band-aid” solution?
Experts say food banks fails to address Canada’s food insecurity problem
Caelan Beard
Although food banks certainly aspire to a noble goal of feeding a community, public health experts say that food banks are a “band-aid” solution to the much larger problem of food insecurity in Canada.
Mary Ellen Prange, chair of the Food Insecurity Workgroup, told the CBC that the problem of food insecurity is much larger than food bank statistics suggest and that food banks are not solving this problem. According to Prange, “only about one in four households that experience food insecurity actually uses a food bank.” Prange further argues that food banks have created a secondary food system for impoverished people, but that long-term solutions are what’s needed. Food banks were initially started in Canada in the 1980s and were meant to be a short-term solution to food insecurity during a recession. Instead, they’ve morphed into a decades-long system of dependency. According to statistics from Food Banks Canada, 13 per cent of Canadians live in a state of food insecurity, and over 850,000 people turn to food banks for help every month. Food bank use in Canada increased by an alarming 28 per cent between 2008 and 2016 — and the reasons behind this aren’t what you might think.
The HungerCount 2016 report, published by Food Banks Canada, found that one in six households that are helped are currently employed. As well, more than one third of those who use food banks are children and youth, and the high cost of housing is a key driving force behind food bank use — 66 per cent of food bank users pay market-level rent. The report summarizes that the root cause of hunger is low income, and that this consistently affects more than four million Canadians at any given time.
Food banks are an important way to help mitigate this need, and experts such as Prange say it is fine to donate to food banks. However, what is needed more are solutions that address the root cause of food insecurity, namely income-based solutions. According to CBC, earlier this month, the Ontario Society of Nutrition Professionals in Public Health stated “food charity is an ineffective and counterproductive response to food security because it does not address the root cause of poverty.”
The HungerCount report put forward similar ideas on how to reduce the need for food banks in Canada. The report recommended a national poverty reduction strategy, a basic liveable income in Canada, a new deal for Canadians on social assistance, and significant new investments in Northern food security. Food banks were never meant to be more than a short-term solution, and the drastic increase in food bank use over the past eight years makes it clear that food banks alone are not a viable solution to ending hunger.Food banks provide invaluable help to a great many people, but the problem of food insecurity is too big for them to solve alone. We need to start holding our government more accountable for failing to adequately address the problem of food insecurity. Greater action is needed to find real solutions to poverty in our country to ensure that no Canadian has to suffer from food insecurity.
Photo by Alora Griffiths/The Ontarion