ROBINET: Food insecurity a major issue in CK

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There’s no shortage of irony in food-related news coming out of the municipality these days.

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Sadly, but not surprisingly, the public health unit announced recently that one in five Chatham-Kent households struggled with food insecurity.

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Simultaneously, a post on the municipality’s Facebook page seeking a restaurant or catering company to provide pre-meeting meals to council has generated such a backlash that the following edit was added: “We have noted community feedback regarding this post. Council is aware of the comments, and discussion is taking place on the topic. Please note that these meals are for councillors who often have primary jobs and attend council meetings that sometimes run from 4 pm to 10 pm and come directly from their primary job with no time to prepare meals in between. We appreciate the feedback, it is not going unnoticed.”

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In other words, local taxpayers – 20 per cent of whom are struggling to put food on the table – are subsidizing meals for people who have not one, but at least two revenue streams because they can’t figure out how to pack a meal or plan a drive-thru pit stop in advance.

Now, to be fair, these meals are nothing new. They were going on back when I was still a paid reporter covering said meetings. And no, the media were never invited to the party!

Rather, I typically zipped home from a full day of work as Mondays were deadline day back then, made a quick meal for the fam and then rushed over to cover council.

But, I digress.

If the council, in their infinite wisdom, decides to continue with these meals, there is a simple solution to the incredibly poor optics of council and administration gathering at the literal trough on the taxpayers’ dime: pay for the meals yourselves.

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And, as far as I’m concerned, that’s enough said about that.

The far bigger issue here is the fact that so many members of our community are struggling to put meals on the table.

Of course this is not a phenomenon unique to CK, the province, the country or the world.

We are living in an era where the divide between the haves and have-nots continues to grow, with the number of have-nots swelling precipitously.

It’s easy to blame governments – particularly when we see things like the above scenario – but irritating as they may be, those things are just a drop in the bucket in the scheme of things.

As much as we love to blame politicians for all that ails us, we really should be looking at the huge corporations whose owners and shareholders are the people who really benefit from our declining standard of living.

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This was already an issue pre-COVID, but during that difficult period, huge corporations took advantage of supply chain challenges and the chaos wreaked by the virus to raise prices to unprecedented levels.

And now, even though the crisis has passed, prices have not gone down and in some cases, corporations have decided that instead of raising prices further, they will give us less of a product, for the same price.

This seems especially prevalent in the food industry, which has a lengthy history of downsizing its packaging.

Small wonder that so many CK households are struggling, and for my money, I suspect the percentage is actually higher than 20 per cent.

There are two streams of people impacted most by food insecurity: those on social assistance and the working poor.

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According to the health unit, the living wage for those living in Southwestern Ontario is $18.65 an hour. By contrast, the minimum wage in Ontario is $16.55 an hour.

That shortfall is exacerbated by the fact that housing costs have also escalated significantly, once again dealing a tremendous blow to those who can least afford it.

As always, the good people of Chatham-Kent do their best to rise to the occasion, staffing and stocking food banks, volunteering at soup kitchens and cooking for those less fortunate.

However, those are the only Bandaid solutions that do nothing to address the most fundamental cause of these struggles – lack of income.

People simply don’t have enough money coming in to pay for basic necessities.

There are many ways to deal with this situation, not the least of which is a guaranteed basic income. Raising the minimum wage would also be a step in the right direction, as would be a complete overhaul of the social assistance system.

And, the huge corporations need to pay more in taxes, while those at the other end of the spectrum should be paying less.

Finally, I’m assuming that the “free” pre-council meals will now come to an end. It won’t mean much in the financial end of things, but in the court of public opinion, it will count for something.

Stay well my friends!

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