I never thought I’d see the day such a thing would happen in MY Canada. A historic city that was once Canada’s capital – Kingston – declared a food emergency after a shocking new food insecurity report surfaced this past week…
Kingston City Coun. Greg Ridge says he and his compatriots have done all they can
to stem the tide of hunger in their jurisdiction. And it’s time for higher levels of
government to step up and make sure all Canadians have enough to eat…
I was waiting for an update on the situation. But the story can’t want any longer. It’s not so much what is eventually done to bring relief to the potentially starving lower income folks in Kingston, but the fact that it needs to be done at all.
Extreme need
King’s Town Ward city councillor Greg Ridge earlier this week confirmed that the municipality has declared an official state of emergency over food insecurity there.
Public Health dietitian Rachael Mather says a report about ‘the cost of eating’ in the Kingston region revealed that 1 in three residents, including children, is struggling to put decent food on the table.
Mather says Statistics Canada and research program PROOF Canada, found food insecurity estimates across the country are currently the highest they’ve been in nearly 20 years. This in spite of the fact that politicians tell us inflation has plateaued, and some food prices have plateaued, if not fallen slightly.
Some history…
Kingston has a long and proud history. It was temporarily the capital of Canada, back in the 1860s, when the country was first constituted as such. It’s home to some of the country’s best-known cul-tural institutions and landmarks – including Queen’s University, the Royal Military College of Canada, and Colonial-era Ft. Henry. At the other end of the ‘historic’ continuum, there are what were once known as Canada’s most notorious correctional facilities: The Kingston Penitentiary and Millhaven Institution.
Now it may become known as the neediest city in southern Canada. Even though it has traditionally been seen as a wealthy locale.
Rhonda Candy, Executive Director Ronda Candy of Martha’s Table, a meal program in Kingston, told CBC News, the organization has seen a steady rise in users for years. But that’s jumped ‘300 per cent’ since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ridge knows the reality
Coun. Ridge grew up in a lower-income home and has seen the reality of food insecurity.
“I remember once in the kitchen my mom was crying, and I went over and I gave her a hug and I said, ‘Mom, it’s going to be OK,'” Ridge recalled, fighting tears. His dad had been injured on the job an was out of work. Friends and relatives were dropping off food. “These are things that […] stay with you for the rest of your life.”
He says a shocking number of Kingstonians are facing the same realities today. “People are drowning. They’re under water. They’re working and doing the best that they can … but it’s not enough. We, as a municipality, are doing what we can.But it’s not enough.”
Help from above?
About all Ridge and his council compatriots can do is seek help from higher levels of government. The emergency resolution calls on the Province of Ontario and the feds to increase social assistance rates to meet basic needs, increase funding for school meal programs and establish a guaranteed livable basic income.
Ridge says he hopes Kingston’s emergency declaration, “sounds the alarm and ensures food inse-curity is front and centre when voters ponder their choices in upcoming elections.”
My take
The Kingston situation is bad enough. But further research reveals that two other major Ontario municipalities have also declared food emergencies. Toronto, of course, is the seat of the Provincial government and Canada’s largest city. Just to it’s west is Mississauga, a mammoth ‘bedroom com-munity’ where I grew up. Both have declared emergencies similar to Kingston’s.
But federal politics has been in the news lately only in reference to the ‘crisis’ in leadership scourging the Liberal Government. And the big story on the provincial scene has been Premier Doug Ford’s col-ourful reaction to the threats by newly sworn-in US president Donald Trump to make Canada the ’51st state’, and ruin our economy with crazy tariffs.
Where’s the action on food security so many of us desperately need?
~ Maggie J.