Vets and teachers failed by Food Banks are failing to get by. It’s just the latest wrinkle in the growing Food Bank crisis affecting millions already, and still worsening. And it’s a good barometer of just how bad the situation is in general…
Vets and teachers failed by Food Banks: Charles Redeker, Calgary Veterans Food Bank
operations manager, alongside his nearly empty shelves, earlier this week...
Not a day goes by this Fall that some new horror story about the Food Bank crisis doesn’t surface. And it’s not just the poorest of the poor being left hungry, or the Food Banks in the highest-demand locales running dry.
Latest headlines shock and dismay
I was shocked and dismayed that the latest socio-professional demographics to be ‘failed’ by the failing Food Banks are teaching the the military. I grew up in an extended family in which all the men of military age served in some capacity in the Second World War. Even one of my Dad’s sisters joined up. And at least one my older cousins volunteered for the peacetime reserves. Come to think about it, a step brother-in-law also recently marked his 20th year as a diesel mechanic in the Canadian forces.
At the same time, my step dad was an elementary and middle school teacher for more than 35 years. And my Mom worked in the finance department of Canada’s largest Board of Education for almost 25.
Call it a ‘declaration if interest’, if you want. Or an indication that I just might know ‘more than the average bear’ about how folks in these professions expect to (and usually do) live.
The basic pros and cons
Military families may (half jokingly) complain about the many transfers and home moves they endure during one or more members’ careers in uniform. But they enjoy all kinds of benefits and special advantages in compensation for all the obvious disadvantages of military life.
Teachers are protected from the harder knocks of and adversities of life by their own large, well-off unions, which provide pretty good pensions and auxiliary health benefits.
Both professions also offer member opportunities for personal and career advancement. And let’s not forget the inherent respect and social status that traditionally goes with both of these lifestlyes. (By the way, thank you both for your service…)
So, to hear that both teachers’ aids and military members are currently turning to Food Banks in numbers never before seen is particularly sobering.
The down and dirty…
A recent Calgary Herald story relates that, for the first time ever, veterans will not receive holiday hampers this year. For some, it’s the difference between getting by without worry or not.
Teachers usually make major wage and benefit demands at contract negotiation time, and are usually satirfied with what theyget whn the dust settles. But their auxiliaries – often as highly educated and skilled – are traditionally left wanting for significant increases. This group is particularly threatened this Fall, by food instability and rising prices. A significant number say they’ve had to take several side jobs just to fill their financial gaps, but are also relying on Food Banks to make ends meet.
Their own unions – subgroups of the powerful Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) – have been stumping for them. But the current employer offer of (C)$0.66 more per hour comes nowhere near the union ask of $3.25 pr hour for all members. Already the ‘teacher’s helpers’ have called two protest walk-outs to back their demands.
It’s beginning to look a lot like the bleakest Christmas in years for them, too.
The big picture…
So believe me when I tell you, if there was ever a time to consider giving, or giving more, to your local Food Bank, this is it. If the military veterans and teacher’s auxiliaries are hurting, it’s a pretty good indication that other less-well-off folks are hurting as they never have before…
~ Maggie J.