Last Wednesday morning at breakfast, while I was sipping a latte (made with a illy espresso pod and organic super filtered milk) and eating yogurt topped with Ace Bakery granola, I heard a very interesting segment on CBC radio. The segment was about a food experiment featuring 10 participants who planned to sustain themselves for 7 days on the contents of a food bank hamper. It was, pardon the pun, food for thought when it explored how a person would divide up a social assistance cheque to cover shelter, food and other necessities.
You can visit the Do the Math website and use their calculator tool to discover what your food budget would be if your sole income was derived from social assistance. Given my age, if I were a single person, I’d qualify for $585 a month in social assistance to pay for everything. That means the Ace granola at $7.99 a box would definitely have to go.
What would you do if you had less than $30 a week to feed yourself? What would be on your shopping list? Likely canned baked beans and ramen noodles – both cheap and easy to prepare (remember, cooking equipment, spices and other ingredients aren’t cheap either). I doubt you’d have too many pieces of meat or any pricey oranges or tomatoes in your cart either. You might have some of the imported 2 for $3 packages of strawberries I saw at the grocery store on Saturday and you likely wouldn’t care that they had been shipped from California.
Tonight in Toronto there will be a community town hall at the Wychwood Barns where the participants in the experiment will share their experience of living on a food bank hamper. Like many of the people reading here I won’t be able to attend; but, like everyone reading here today, I can (and will) remember that I’m not only very lucky to have plenty to eat, but that I can make a difference in the world by asking the government to increase social assistance so that people can have both a roof over their heads and the nutrition they need to feel up to pulling their lives together. Or (actually make that ‘and’), you can drop a few nutritious items off at the local food bank; someone will definitely appreciate it.