After years of raising the alarm about unprecedented levels of food insecurity, hundreds of people from food banks, meal programs and drop-in centres from across the GTA gathered outside the Legislative Assembly to "put Queen's Park on Notice" to freeze the rent, raise social assistance rates and increase minimum wage.
"Every year at the food bank we release a report about record levels of food insecurity with clear policy recommendations and every year they're ignored," said Chiara Padovani, Senior Specialist of Advocacy and Community Engagement at North York Harvest Food Bank. "This year our food bank community wanted to try something different -- so that the people behind the numbers in our reports wouldn't go unnoticed."
"People like me get notices all the time. Notice of late payment, notice of arrears, notice of layoff, notice of eviction -- even notice of insufficient funds when we try to pay our groceries" says Goldie Wallensky, a long time client and supporter of the Lawrence Heights Food Space. "But instead of fixing the cracks in the system that too many of us are falling through, our government has allowed them to grow even bigger. So today we're putting them on notice: We won't be ignored any longer."
Speakers from a wide coalition of food banks, tenant groups and community organizations stood before a life-size installation of the board game Snakes and Broken Ladders, each square representing a different crack in our crumbling social safety net.
“Social assistance rates are too low to survive on,” said Claudia Calabro, Community Organizer at the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC). “The provincial government is throwing crumbs at people on social assistance while acting like they’re providing a feast. We need honest policy changes that will put money directly into the pockets of people who need it most, and to stop punishing people who are already down on their luck by pushing them further into poverty.”
Eight buses full of people from different food banks and community organizations from across the GTA joined the crowd on the lawn of Queens Park.
"I took the bus to Queens Park with a group of my neighbours from my building," says Patricia Scott, a long-time food bank volunteer and client. "We have to rely on the food bank because our rent is going up 3 times higher than our wages and our old age security. It's squeezing us dry."
As the crowd gathered on the lawn of Queens Park, Weston King Neighbourhood Centre handed out packed lunches. "We're bringing our daily meal service from our little neighbourhood of Weston to the front door of Queens Park today," says Monica Pierce, drop-in coordinator of WKNC. "It's important to our community to be here today."
Queen’s Park ON NOTICE was co-organized by North York Harvest Food Bank, ACORN Ontario, Campaign for Adequate Welfare and Disability Benefits, DJNO, Fair Rent Ontario, FMTA, Income Security Advocacy Centre, Justice For Workers, ODSP Action Coalition, Raise the Rates Coalition, Social Planning Toronto, York South-Weston Tenant Union, and the Weston King-Mount Dennis Neighbourhood Centre.
