Secure food supply requires united action
Posted: April 14, 2010
Categories: News from Sustain Members / News from Sustain Ontario
Article from Perth EMC featuring Moe Garahan of Just Food, Member of Sustain Ontario
Restoring decision-making power over Canada’s food system to the hands of ordinary people will require a united effort by all sectors of society, Moe Garahan of Ottawa-based nonprofit organization Just Food told guests at the annual general meeting of the Perth and District Food Bank.
“As Canadians we’ve been raised to be fairly apathetic,” said Garahan. “We’re well educated, but we don’t act on it.”
Food bank board member Nancy Wildgoose introduced Garahan as someone who has “done a great deal of good for the community.” Just Food has recently been asked to develop a food policy for the city of Ottawa.
Garahan began working at the Gloucester Emergency Food Bank about 15 years ago, where she learned “about the diverse situations that lead people to line up at the food bank.” She also discovered that many more food donations were received at Christmas than at other times of year, although food bank clients continued to have the same needs year-round.
Garahan noted that poverty is one issue driving the need for food banks. For years, she said, medical officers of health in Ontario have been tasked with providing the government with data on what it costs in each city and county to provide a “nutritious food basket.” The nutritious food basket is a food-costing tool that measures the cost of healthy eating based on the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide. Last year, the medical officers of health came together to write a document calling on the government to acknowledge and take action on the fact that every year it has been shown that social assistance is insufficient to provide enough income to pay for this basic food basket.
Continue reading this article on Perth EMC’s website by clicking here.