Food Bank Crisis

More crisis in Toronto, the single most important city in Canada. Already struggling with the Obesity Crisis, the Toronto Food Bank village peoples have sent another warning that donations of food are down. Government, which is to say you people who already feed yourself and your own children, need to shovel over a few more wheelbarrows of money. It was bad last year when I talked about it * and now it is worser.

I heard this on the radio, but the Ontario Association of Food Banks does not seem to mention it on the news page of their web site * , nor their blog * . (Mind you, the blog does mention that the crisis involving pork shipments has been solved … but why are food banks handing out pork products? Will that not offend someone?) And if you Google the issue, the third item * shows that this crisis has been around at least since 2005. So, it must be important. The thought of all those starving kids makes me weep. Food bank donations were down 25 percent in 2007 * , so if they are down over those already depressed numbers, things must be really bad. And anyone who doubts the crisis is just a big meanie, taking the food out of the mouths of children, immigrants, the homeless, and the disabled.

Speaking of critics, what about my buddy Bob? He used to volunteer at the local food bank. He would help one Saturday a month, unloading trucks. One Saturday he helped unload a shipment of steaks. Funny, the steak never found its way to the tables of the hungry food bank clients. And, even more funny, the manager of the food bank runs a restaurant. He called the local paper here in Toronto and talked to a reporter, but no investigation was done, and no article written. That is because there was no scandal! Otherwise the local paper would have investigated and reported … that is their job, is it not? Anyway, Bob no longer volunteers, nor does he donate, and he cancelled his subscription

Another great non-reported non-scandal involving food banks is the appearance of time-expired food stuffs in certain small grocery stores. It is not true that foodstuffs meant for food banks are getting diverted into these establishments. If that were the case, the local paper would investigate and report on these outrages. It is not like they do not know about it. The three people that I know who reported it to the local paper also told me.

You can hear lots of stories like this from your co-workers, even over hear it on the subway or streetcar. But it is not an issue … the local paper has neither investigated nor reported on it, so it does not happen.

So, there you have it. People are not giving donations to the food banks. We need the government to step in and take money from the people not giving donations to the food banks. The media, which neither investigates nor reports on corruption in the food bank industry, says so. A lot of media types have friends in the food bank industry. They support the same progressive causes, like fighting poverty through hiring more progessives. As for the question of why people are turning away from donating to food banks (and not reading the media that neither investigates nor reports), that is best left unasked. Better to tax people. Anyone who questions this must be a racist.

You can help the food bank industry lobby government for the money you do not wish to give the food banks because of uninvestigated and unreported corruption here * .

I, Fenris Badwulf, wrote this

xpd Mitchieville, DustMyBroom, Stormy Days of March