Why we should bite the hand that feeds us

Food banks foster the impression that governments can lower their guard on poverty

It is difficult to be critical of food banks. It is even more difficult to find fault with the thousands of dedicated, caring volunteers who staff food banks so that those who might otherwise go hungry, receive essential food. People who rely on food banks are grateful and naturally reluctant to be critical of them. Who would “bite the hand that feeds them”?

While food banks provide a much needed buffer between hunger and survival, after 30 years of existence there are advocacy groups that question whether food banks are capable of reducing poverty over the longer term. They express a growing fear that food banks may mask the underlying poverty that drives their use and shield the public from the harsher realities of food insecurity. The very existence of food banks may even foster the false impression that the hungry are being fed and that government can lower its guard on real poverty reduction initiatives.

Food insecurity is a symptom of the underlying poverty caused by increasing income inequality and the loss of well-paying jobs due to globalization, automation and lowest wage sourcing of consumer products. While in many ways the overall economy is strengthened by globalization, it creates large populations of people for whom unemployment, precarious employment or lower wage expectations have become the norm. While the solution to that long-term inequality and poverty is not yet clear, it is becoming obvious that after 30 years of stoic, stopgap intervention, food banks are not the answer.

There is an inherent indignity in having to ask for charity to feed oneself and family; regardless of the courtesy and respect with which food bank volunteers try to treat clients. This indignity is aggravated by increasing demands from food banks for “proof of need.” In order for impoverished single parents, elderly and disabled to qualify for the food they so desperately need, many food banks now demand proof of income statements from Ontario Works, Ontario Disability Support Program, Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement. Some go so far as demanding OHIP, Social Insurance Numbers or proof of immigrant or refugee status. Surely the indignity of one’s very attendance at a food bank is evidence enough of need. Identification requirements should be humanely minimal.

In the long term, the food security solution lies not with food banks but with real poverty reduction initiatives. The raising of Ontario’s minimum wage to $15 per hour will rescue many of the working poor from the need for food banks and, despite the hue and cry from seven-figure salaried CEOs, that will be progress. The experimental foray into forms of guaranteed minimum income for people out of work and negative taxation for low-income earners also holds great promise for real and lasting poverty reduction. While this may seem exactly the sort of thing the business community and conservative economists would label as “job-killing” and “creating a nation of welfare bums,” a growing number of economic thinkers, not only on the left, are saying it could be the exact opposite. It might help eliminate poverty to a great extent, and set the stage for a healthier and more productive society.

So as society moves to improve incomes for our least fortunate citizens, how can we persuade food banks and their volunteers that their efforts may be counterproductive and may, in fact, prolong the need for food banks? This may not be as obvious or as easy as it seems. How might we redirect and repurpose the empathy, energy and effort of food bank volunteers into long-term poverty reduction so that their eventual elimination is a positive outcome?

Voices for Change Halton aims to eradicate poverty and render food banks obsolete through education, advocacy and active community partnerships. It advocates that “Food charity is not enough.” Its survey of food bank users, donors and volunteers, “Biting the Hand that Feeds Us,” offers insight into the perpetuation of food bank use and its impact on recipients and volunteers. (The report can be downloaded at voicesforchange.ca) VfCH is reaching out to food banks to involve them in restoring dignity to the people who use food banks by reducing the requirements to “prove need.” This is the first step in a strategy to transition food banks from alleviating hunger through charity, to eliminating food insecurity through income. The Compassion Society of Halton is pleased to be a partner with VfCH in this work.