Food banks are often the canary in the coalmine of social issues –witnessing how job loss and poverty affect those who walk through our doors.
Part of our critical work at Food Banks Canada and as a food bank network is to advocate for policies that will reduce food bank use.
Food Banks Canada is very pleased to see many of our policy recommendations over the last number of years included in this year’s federal budget.
The most significant announcement is the investment in affordable childcare.
A new $30 billion investment in early learning and affordable childcare will go a long way towards reducing the high costs of childcare for families that struggle to have enough income left over each month to put food on the table.
The $30 billion investment will be distributed over 5 years starting in 2021 with a goal that Canadians (outside of Quebec) can expect child care costs to be cut by 50% by 2022, eventually reaching ten dollars a day, on average, in five years.
The fact is that currently over 34% of those needing a food bank in Canada are children, even if they only make up around 20% of the country’s population.
We also know that 19% of households with children experienced food insecurity in 2020, whereas that number fell to 12% for households without children.
As more women have been affected by job and wage loss during the pandemic, affordable childcare will be critical to more women being able to fully rejoin the workforce, post covid.
While we believe that the Canada Child Benefit was a major step towards reducing childhood poverty and food bank use in children, we also believe that lowering the cost of childcare with this major investment will go a long way in reducing food bank use for children and families.
New investment of $140 million to continue the Emergency Food Security Fund and Local Food Infrastructure Fund to be distributed to food banks and food security agencies in 2021–2022. We are currently working with the government on how these funds will be distributed over the coming year –more details to follow.
Overall, while Food Banks Canada would like to have seen new investments towards a national Pharmacare program and more supports for people with disabilities, we believe this budget did address many of our core policy recommendations over the last few years.
SUBMITTED TO QUINTE NEWS BY GLEANERS FOOD BANK & THE TRI-COUNTY WAREHOUSE
