Toronto's head doc says $100 food stipend is needed
February 19, 2009
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Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health today added his voice to the province-wide call for the Ontario government to introduce a $100 Healthy Food Supplement for all adults on social assistance in the upcoming provincial budget.
Dr. David McKeown, along with the Association of Local Public Health Agencies, joined with a coalition of 350 anti-poverty organizations to campaign for the immediate introduction of the monthly supplement.
“Every year we measure what it costs to eat a healthy diet - a simple diet, not a fancy diet - in Toronto,” McKeown said after a press conference today at The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto.
“And every year we find that there is a gap between what people on low incomes, particularly those on social assistance, have in their pockets and what it costs to have basic shelter, and a basic nutritious diet here in the city of Toronto.”
The province maintains reducing poverty is a top priority, and have made some steps, including an investment in student nutrition programs, McKeown said. But, he added, this campaign — dubbed Put Food in the Budget — will act as a down payment to close the gap between healthy living and poverty.
“That $100 a month for social assistance recipients will mean they can go out and buy healthy food now,” McKeown said. “There are the health challenges that they face from not having a healthy diet. We see those now. They can’t wait.”
Studies have shown people with low incomes have higher rates of disease, higher rates of risk factors and higher rates of death, McKeown said.
“In almost every health measure, people with low incomes do worse,” he said. “One of the reasons is not having access to healthy food.”
Each year, Ontario’s local health units are required to report the cost of a Nutritious Food Basket to the provincial government. The basket of 66 specified foods is used as a tool to measure the cost of healthy eating in a particular area.
In Toronto, the cost of a nutritious food basket increased by 9.4 per cent from 2006 to 2008.
Janet Gasparini, a Sudbury city councillor and chair of the Social Planning Network of Ontario, said that now is the right time, when communities are struggling under a crumbling economy, to introduce a $100 monthly supplement for food.
“There’s a good economic case to be made for putting dollars into the hands of the people who will spend it in communities,” she said.
And, she added, there should be no concerns that people will spend the monthly supplement unwisely.
“There is not a doubt in my mind that what people will do is buy groceries,” she said. “It will help make sure more food is in the house and the rent is paid…People want to have good lives.”
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