Time to examine support system

Re Special diet supplements

Responding to what they perceived as an alarming increase in claims for a special diet supplement for people on welfare and disability benefits in Ontario, the Ministry of Community and Social Services has announced a plan to clamp down on applications. While previous regulations allowed for a degree of flexibility from health-care professionals, the new approach seeks to remove any discretion from the doctors and nurse practitioners who request additional funds for food for their patients. The ministry felt, apparently, that many applications were recommending additional help for clients whose hunger and poor nutrition was rooted in their poverty rather than any particular diagnosed illness. They were probably right. Not being able to afford sufficient food must have moved many health- care providers to try to get something more for their patients. Who can blame them? The Ministry of Health touts preventative health care as desirable; some folks took that seriously. Apparently other branches of government do not. But the public understands the message. A record number of people , gave money to buy food in the fall food drive, and thousands more gave actual food. This may have been our best fall food drive for many years.

Perhaps bending the law to ensure ongoing good health outcomes was not the best way to approach the inadequacy of low income. But surely it was born on both compassion and desperation for change. And perhaps the lesson for the government of Ontario is this: Tweaking an outdated system of support, is not going to achieve an end to hunger. Time, then, to reexamine the whole system and bring it up to date to reflect the realities of 2005 for the disabled, the working poor and those who wish to work but cannot afford to do so in an antiquated system. Sue Cox, Executive Director, Daily Bread Food Bank, Toronto