It’s time our governments fight hunger with a healthy food guarantee
Carl is a sweet 56-year-old patient of mine who I saw last week. He lives on his own. He is 300 pounds and has bad diabetes that is destroying his vision.
He cannot feel his feet which are numb from nerve damage due to his diabetes. He is anemic because he cannot afford decent food rich in iron.
He was complaining that his feet were red and swollen. He cannot afford transportation, even tries to save money on bus fare and walks long distances from his home to the food bank, about four kilometres away, where he gets pasta, cereal and canned foods.
Over the past few Ramadans, fasting from before sunrise to sunset, with no food or drink each day for a month, I have become increasingly attuned to the plight of my patients and those in our community who are suffering with profound poverty and hunger.
A group of Hamilton area Pakistani physicians conducted a Ramadan food basket distribution out of the Hamilton Downtown Mosque recently. Onehundred boxes of food — rice, lentils, oil, dates and pasta — were distributed to 100 families in the neighbourhood, regardless of religion, gender or creed. We didn’t want to ask questions or demand identification but instead relied on the knowledgeable local members of the mosque to ensure the distribution was as fair as possible.
Of course, we ran out of boxes.
Speaking to an outreach worker from Wesley Urban Ministries who also picked up boxes for four desperate local families, I realized first hand just how great the need is in our Hamilton downtown core.
Ramadan is a whole month of thanksgiving — thanksgiving to God for the bounties that He has given us. But the sad reality is the bounties that this world offers have not been equally distributed both here at home and across the globe.
In January, Oxfam published its annual inequality report and said that in 2017 alone, the world’s billionaires increased their wealth by $762 billion — enough to end “global extreme poverty seven times over.”
As a result, a big chunk of humanity (almost 900 million) goes to bed nightly with an empty stomach.
Poverty leads to a vicious cycle of malnutrition, poor health, growth stunting and mental stunting. The Hamilton Spectator’s 2010
“Code Red” series found that people living in poverty are sicker, have more health emergencies and lower life expectancy than people living in more affluent neighbourhoods.
Here in Hamilton, Hamilton Food Share’s “Hunger Count 2017” reported that 4,600 children in our city go to bed hungry each day.
I’m not saying it’s evil to be wealthy. However, how can anyone go to bed each night knowing that our neighbours are hungry? Especially children?
It is nice that our policymakers and politicians want to give us free prescription drugs, access to cannabis and free dental care.
But is it possible they can guarantee each citizen, young or old, a basic monthly allowance of good, wholesome, healthy food?
This should not be done as a financial subsidy but rather dispensed directly from local grocery stores, just as we get our medications from a pharmacy.
The Canada Food Guide is awesome, but a great next step would be to guarantee our citizens the basic right to healthy wholesome foods such as vegetables, fruits, chicken, lentils, grains and eggs. Imagine the impact on local and national health indices that could be realized, particularly for people like my patient Carl.
It makes intuitive sense that if you fight hunger, you will have fewer sick, physically and mentally stunted people, and more productive, strong, healthy citizens who do not need to utilize health-care services as often, resulting in substantial savings in health spending. If they are strong and healthy, they are more likely able to work and be even more productive in the community. There may even be less crime.
Are our politicians so resigned to the fact that there are enough caring, altruistic people in our communities that operate food banks, run soup kitchens and do their own compassionate food distributions for the hungry and needy, that they don’t need to make hunger a high priority or responsibility?
Hunger and poverty are clearly not good for our economy.
Our elected officials must take more responsibility and make this a higher priority. Having free drugs, nice teeth and cannabis is nice, but let’s take care of our hungry first. That just makes sense.
Raza Khan is a Hamilton born and raised family physician.