Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Child Poverty Forgotten But Not Gone

What was supposed to be a temporary expansion of the depression era soup kitchens, the Food Bank, instituted when the economy collapsed after the Wall Street crash of 1987 and the decline in oil prices is now a permanent fixture in the social economy. Almost half those using it are children. Say wasn't there a red book promise about ending child poverty in Canada back in the 1993?

Winter will be hard, food-bank report warns

Canadian unemployment is dropping, but total food-bank use in March 2005 – the month the dry-goods charity suppliers do their annual count – fell just one-tenth of one per cent from 2004's record high, the HungerCount report said. However, use is still up 24 per cent from 1997 and 118 per cent from 1989. The report says 823,856 Canadians, including more than 300,000 children, visited food banks in March, the report says.

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