Who do your donations to our Food for Fines campaign help? The number of Canadians relying on food banks in Canada continues to grow. They are among the most vulnerable members of our society, and they are in every community, including yours.Of food bank users,
- 38% are children;
- 7% are seniors;
- 12% are Aboriginal;
- 15% receive disability benefits;
- 17% are or were recently employed; and
- 51% receive social assistance.
“In 2007-2008, 1.92 million people in Canada aged 12 or older, including 228,500 children aged 12 to 17, lived in food-insecure households. Almost one third of these people, including 546,100 adults and 60,000 children aged 12 to 17, lived in households with severe food insecurity.”
Source: Health Canada, Household Food Insecurity In Canada in 2007-2008: Key Statistics and Graphics
“British Columbia’s child poverty rate fell for the second consecutive year to 14.5 per cent in 2008, using Statistics Canada’s Low Income Cut-Offs before-tax as a measure of poverty… The number of poor children in BC was 121,000 – more than the total populations of Campbell River, Mission, Squamish and Vernon combined.”
Source: 2010 Child Poverty Report Card
“One in 10 children still lives in poverty in Canada. It’s worse for children living in First Nations communities: one in four grow up in poverty."
"Employment is not always an assured pathway out of poverty: 1 in 3 low-income children lives in families where at least one parent works full-time year round and almost 400,000 adult full-time workers earn less than $10 per hour."
"Child poverty is persistent across Canada: rates of child and family poverty (LICO before-tax) are in the double digits in all provinces."
"The gap between rich and poor has widened: On average, for every dollar the families in the poorest 10 per cent had, families in the richest 10 per cent had almost 13 times as much ($12.66) in 2008.”
