BY TAMARA BELKOV
The co-chair of the Sudbury Manitoulin Food Security Network says
the food being given out at area food banks is not
nutritious.
According to Doreen Ojala, people who rely on food banks are
suffering from nutritional deficiencies.
“We have 13,500 people going to the food bank in Sudbury,” Ojala
says. “That’s the same people every month. They aren’t getting
enough vitamin B or C.”
Ojala’s job is to ensure all Sudburians have the ability to
access healthy and nutritious foods.
Too many people in Sudbury are being forced to rely on food
banks that were originally designed to provide only emergency
assistance, she says.
The Sudbury Food Bank is an umbrella organization managed by
Neil Cutchaw. He supplies 38-member agencies with mostly
non-perishable food items offer assistance on an emergency basis to
many from students to pensioners to those with jobs.
“The food banks in general are meant for emergency needs and we
are doing our job meeting those needs on a monthly basis,” Cutchaw
says. “Last summer we were able to provide fresh fruit and
vegetables from our partnership with the horticultural
society.”
Cutchaw adds the staples they provide (beans, pasta and rice)
are easily stretched and are nutritionally balanced.
“They are very high-end for energy and protein. I’m not suggesting they are a complete meal.
We hope people are adding vegetables and ground beef or chicken
to make meals as nutritious as possible.”
Geneva Oake has been the Family Services co-ordinator with the Salvation Army for 20 years.
She also says the food is nutritious. The boxes they distribute
to families in the Flour Mill area contain fresh milk, bread,
pasta, rice, peanut butter and canned items such as sauce,
tomatoes, peas or corn, tuna or salmon and are intended as
emergency assistance. The boxes are meant to last three to four
days and are only given out once a month.
“There are some using it regularly, but most are using it in
emergencies or for occasional assistance,” Oake says. “In March, we
fed 420 households or 1,265 adults and children.”
Ojala says simply donating more food isn’t the answer.
“People should be allocated enough to buy healthy nutritious food
depending on the size of their family.
People on social assistance, pensions and working for minimum
wage, end up trapped in a cycle of poverty and poor health. We need
to move food security issues into policy planning. The government
needs to recognize the real cost of food.”
Ojala uses the Sudbury District Health Unit's nutritious food
basket report as a model and says the rates established by the
province for social assistance are too low and prevent Sudburians
from being able to buy healthy food.
Tammy Cheguis is with the Sudbury District Health Unit (SDHU)
and is responsible for the Nutritious Food Basket report put out
each year as a tool to help calculate what it costs to feed a
family of four.
The basket contains 66 food items priced in area grocery stores.
Snack foods, personal hygiene and household products are not
included. Last, year the cost of the food basket was $556.45 per
month in Sudbury and Manitoulin districts.
Ontario Works says a family of four (two adults and two children
under 12) receives a basic monthly allowance of $594 to cover all
the family’s expenses such as groceries, clothing, school supplies
and bus tickets.
The additional cost of providing shelter is calculated at $621 a month.