Food Banks Canada calls on Ottawa to take action on hunger

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Food Banks Canada is calling on the Harper Conservatives to take action as a record number of Canadians turn to charity for their groceries.

The new hunger count report shows in a typical month this year 882,000 people took food from food banks across the country, nearly 40 per cent of them are children.

These numbers are a staggering 31per cent increase over food bank usage before the recession.

The reason for the spike in food bank usage is the economy.

Katharine Schmidt, executive director of Food Banks Canada, said while the economic situation has improved we’ve lost many high-paying jobs.

“Those jobs have been, in many cases, replaced with service-sector positions and we know that they pay half of what those higher-paying manufacturing jobs did,” she explained.

Schmidt said Canadians need to see quick action from the Harper Conservatives.

“Firstly, invest in affordable housing so that Canadians don’t have to make the choice between paying the rent or feeding their families,” she said.

She also wants to see a boost to the guaranteed income supplement for seniors.

To add to the problem, Schmidt said donations to food banks have been decreasing, meaning many locations have had to close their doors early and give fewer groceries to families in need.

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