Drop-ins lack cash to serve healthy food
Councillors ask for extra funding in tight social service budget
Food served to the city’s most impoverished residents is far below Canadian nutritious food guidelines, say councillors, but there may not be enough money in next year’s budget to do anything about it.
Members of the community and protective services committee hit a slight snag while approving its large share of the city’s overall budget for 2014 on Thursday, when representatives of publicly funded drop-in programs highlighted the lack of healthy food given to their clients.
Archdeacon Peter John Hobbs at the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa oversees three of the city’s eight day programs, which offer vulnerable residents hot meals, clothing, health services and crisis intervention. Even with a slight 1.5 per cent increase in social service spending across the board next year, the money is not enough to provide healthy food to an estimated 1,400 clients, said Hobbs.
“We expect the city to continue to recognize its role in meeting the needs of vulnerable citizens,” he told committee members. “We do not want to have to reduce our services, but we must operate within our budgets.”
Hobbs and the coalition of day programs want a 2.5 per cent increase in the amount given to them. The city had already budgeted for a 1.5 per cent increase, creating an estimated total of about $2.5 million, according to Aaron Burry, the general manager of community and social services.
Committee members agreed with a motion from Coun. Diane Holmes to ask staff to find the money to fund the increase for the day programs, which make up a small fraction of a much larger group of social services offered by the city, including food banks, drop-in centres and other health programs.
The additional increase means Burry and his staff have to come up with at least another $25,000 and he is finding it hard to do that. The money will have to be a permanent shift because, if not, the day programs would merely suffer the following year.
“We started (looking) and I’m not seeing anything off the top of my head,” Burry said.
This is another example of the impact of council’s bid to keep overall tax increases to 1.9 per cent next year, a point recognized by Holmes and Burry.
“I think it really speaks to how tight the budgets are, especially in the community funding area ... which are all under growth pressures,” he said.