Food for thought

There's something wrong when Newfoundland and Labrador, which is now a 'have' province thanks to our oil resources, has the highest usage rate of food banks in the whole country.

Lorraine Michael, leader of the NDP, is asking the provincial government to tune into this "unacceptable statistic," that 5.4 per cent of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are using food banks, and you can't blame her.

There could be a couple of explanations as to why people are relying so heavily on charity in this oil-rich province.

Is the newfound wealth of the province not reaching all branches of the population and no matter how rich this province becomes, more and more people are forced to scrounge for a meal?

Is the level of abuse on the rise where people are using the food banks to supplement their budgets and freeing up the grocery money for other things such as: drinking, drugs, gambling or even luxury items?

You can bet it's a bit of both and the huge question is how to resolve it. Sometimes there are no easy answers and the issue of poverty has historically stumped people on how it can ever be resolved.

The NDP leader is calling on the Williams administration to offer a universal province-wide school lunch program to ensure children, who make up a big portion of food bank users, get adequate nutritious meals. She says while the School Lunch Program and the Kids Eat Smart Program do receive some government funding, they do not reach most school-aged children.

That is a justified and reasonable request, a measure that should ease our social conscience because we know most hearts bleed for children who have to go to school hungry.

These children are the vulnerable whether their parents are too sick to provide what's needed or too fond of playing VLTs to buy groceries, but no normal person would ever want to see any child deprived of basic life needs.

In Labrador West, for example, there have been several occasions when the local food bank had to put out the call for more donations as the stocks were getting low with increased usage.

The economy in Labrador West is probably the healthiest in the whole province and some people would probably even wonder why such a charitable service is even needed.

The sad truth is, no matter how strong any economy is, there will always be unfortunate people, who through sickness or some other form of hard luck, struggle to survive and support their families. These people are found in the largest cities to the smallest outports and they are the ones charitable services such as food banks no doubt focus on.

Food banks and school lunch programs are all great initiatives but they are only band-aid solutions to greater problems. It may be prudent and more effective if Government would employ an educational element for their clients on assisted income, for example. Government should have educational resources readily available for low-income families who struggle to provide for their family; whatever the reasons may be.

Advice on budgeting household incomes should indeed be a parcel of social assistance. If parents are struggling with addictions, there should be an added focus on whether children in the household are getting the proper basic care. If not, then the onus is on Child, Youth and Family Services to see that it is-if the parents can't do it because there is inappropriate spending, then the children have a right to be with caregivers who can provide the basics.

Handouts, alone, definitely does not work; especially for the people who take advantage because of other problems that get in the way of their obligations to their families. It's about educating people, offering options because sometimes it is required.

Raising children is the most complex and demanding job in the world. People are trained for most other jobs, yet there's no real training for parenting.

There's nothing wrong with any government offering some training skills to those who express or display a need for it; that, with the continued financial support for school lunch programs and food banks, may indeed go a little further in the quest to end child poverty.