Daily Bread Report High Cost Of Housing Makes People Hungry

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Too many people are still going hungry too much of the time, according to the Daily Bread Food Bank's 2011 profile of hunger in the GTA, "Hunger Snapshot: Fighting Hunger".

From March to April this year, for example, there were over a million people, 1,082,000 people who used food banks – there were 908,000 in Toronto and in the GTA itself, the number was 174,000!

Hunger can mean not being able to afford to eat enough food or have nutritiously balanced meals. Hunger affected households, whether they were families with children or single persons.

The Daily Bread Hunger Report said that 46% of adults have not eaten for a day because of lack of money, and that 40% of adults go hungry at least once a week.

It comes as no surprise then that 43% of adults often could not afford to eat balanced meals.

It is even more painful when one considers children. Their records for 2011 show that 36% of those who use food bank clients are children!

What's even more appalling is that 19% of children go hungry at least once per week in the GTA.

How can this happen here in Ontario? Daily Bread Food Bank said that while there are many factors that pushes people into poverty, one of the main reasons is the cost of housing.

Daily Bread Food Bank found that families and individuals living on the margins spent 72% of their income on rent or mortgage including utilities.

The median monthly income was just $925! While most, about 67%, were receiving social assistance, most people new to coming to the food bank, or 41%, were people who had recently lost their job or had their work hours dramatically reduced.

The high cost of housing is a key barrier, the report says, to escaping poverty for food bank clients. Daily Bread suggests that an Ontario Housing Benefit would be a big first step in the fight against hunger and supports the goals of a long-term affordable housing strategy and poverty reduction.

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