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Welfare Food Challenge Ends – Eat on the Welfare Rate for One Week – only $26 for Food in Vancouver
Welfare Food Challenge Ends Today
Hear from some of the 100 Challenge takers about their experiences and hunger and what they have learned about a poverty hunger diet.
After a week of eating a poverty diet, only spending the $26 that a single person on welfare has for food, the people who took the Welfare Food Challenge can return to their usual life. Most feel changed and now they have a much better understanding of life in poverty and an appreciation of food and its costs. But for the 177,000 people on welfare, the 137,000 children in poverty and the over 500,000 people in poverty in BC they have a poverty diet every week.
Speakers were:
· Bill Hopwood (Raise the Rates organizer) Chair
· Constance Barnes (Commissioner, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation) who took the Challenge
· Fraser Stuart (Raise the Rates activist) who is living on welfare
· Gerry Kasten (Registered Dietitian) who took the Challenge
· Ted Bruce (Executive Director of Population Health with Vancouver Coastal Health) who took the Challenge
· Victoria Bull, (Parents and Grandparents in Poverty) a grandparent raising her grandchild on welfare
· Jean Swanson (Chair of Raise the Rates)
· Karen Barnaby (Chef) who prepared a week’s worth of food with $26
Famous chef and food columnist, Karen Barnaby, will also present her food for a week, costing $26.
Contacts:
· Bill Hopwood: 604 738-1653, 778 686-5293 (cell) bill50@vcn.bc.ca
· Jean Swanson: 604 729-2380, jean.swanson@gmail.com
· Welfare Food Challenge Website: http://welfarefoodchallenge.org/
26 Years since Emery Barnes – Where are We Now?
Justice not Charity
Also hear also from people who live in poverty every day.
Raise the Rates: Welfare Food Challenge
Eat on the Welfare Rate for One Week – only $26 for Food
An Invitation to the People of BC
Poverty in BC
BC has the worst poverty in Canada. This has been true for nearly a decade.
The Facts:
- · BC has had the worst or second worst child poverty; 137,000 children in poverty.
- · BC has the worst overall rate of poverty; over 500,000 people
- · BC has the biggest inequality between the richest and poorest 20% of the population
Do you think poverty in BC is a scandal?
Do you want to do something to change BC’s poverty record? The poorest people in BC are those on welfare. A single person on welfare gets only $610 a month for everything shelter, food, hygiene, clothes, etc.
If we can get welfare raised this will help people on welfare and also everyone in poverty by pushing up standards.
We Invite you to take the Welfare Food Challenge
Raise the Rates has launched the Welfare Food Challenge. The challenge is to live for a week on the food that a single, able-bodied person on welfare would have – spending only $26!
The challenge will start on October 16, World Food Day, and will finish on OctRaise the Rates has launched a new challenge, the Welfare Food Challenge. The
challenge is to live for a week on the food that a single, able-bodied person on welfare would have – spending only $26!
hygiene only $109 remains for food – less than $26 for a week. There is nothing for clothes, haircuts, or any social life.
Raise the Rates invites people from across BC in all walks of life to take the Welfare Food Challenge and share with friends, the media and policy makers their experiences of a week of poverty eating.
Raise the Rates recognizes that one week is not the same as what people on welfare experience, as they have to survive for months on welfare and often lack proper cooking facilities.
You can do it for one week to help make a difference!
We hope you are interested in taking the Challenge and help end poverty in BC. Find out more:
- · go to the website: http://welfarefoodchallenge.org/
Please encourage friends and colleagues to take the Challenge too.
Volunteer Chefs/Foodies/Cooking Enthusiasts needed for The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House (DTESNH) in Vancouver
The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House (DTESNH) is looking for creative chefs, foodies and cooking enthusiasts with a passion for social justice to volunteer their time once a month to run a themed Community Kitchen as part of our Right to Food programming. Themes include food preservation (canning, pickling, etc.), health (i.e. cooking for diabetes), baking, and food from different cultures. DTNESH is also open to chefs proposing their own themes.
- Location: Hastings E and Princess
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Alley Health Fair 2011 on 100 Block Hastings in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
A celebration of healthy living and nutrition in the Downtown Eastside, from hair cuts to HIV testing, from blood pressure to pedal-powered smoothies
The Alley Health Fair wants to increase awareness of healthy living possibilities among DTES residents. Be sure to visit them on Thursday, Sept 15 10AM-2PM
Alley Health Fair
100 Block East Hastings
Food, Acupuncture, Massage, Smoothies, Giveaways, Health Info and Testing!
7 Right to Food Mobile Murals at SOLEfood Urban Farms in Vancouver
The Downtown Eastside (DTES) Right to Food philosophy upholds the Human Right of Downtown Eastside residents to abundant, local, fresh and nutritious food that is available across the neighbourhood and delivered in a dignified manner. That’s why we serve fresh, nutritious, local produce in our programming centre.
The Food Murals were created during the HomeGround festival at Oppenheimer Park this year. Each mural represents a Food Solution developed by the DTES Kitchen Table Project, a Community Led Food Action Plan to bring more healthy and tasty food to Downtown Eastside residents.
DTES Kitchen Tables 7 Food Solutions
1. Standards = fresh protein, fruit & vegetables
2. Creative Recipes = quality, tasty and nutritious meals
3. Collective buying from local farmers
4. Jobs for our neighbours
5. Dignifying Food = more food at more places with no lineups
6. Partnerships with creative chefs
7. Greening DTES Kitchens
The DTES Neighbourhood House acknowledges and honours the fact that our community lies within the traditional territory of the Coast Salish people.
Video by Sid Tan
AHA MEDIA filmed at 7 Right to Food Mobile Murals being hung up at SOLEfood Urban Farm in Vancouver
AHA MEDIA filmed the 7 Right to Food Mobile Murals being hung up at SOLEfood Urban Farm at East Hastings and Hawkes
The Food Murals were created during the HomeGround festival at Oppenheimer Park this year. See more here
Each mural represents a Food Solution developed by the DTES Kitchen Table Project, a Community Led Food Action Plan to bring more healthy and tasty food to the Downtown Eastside.
DTES Kitchen Tables 7 Food Solutions
No 1 Nutritional & Food Quality Standards
No 2 Menu Development & Recipes
No 3 Food Procurement
No 4 Food Preparation & Processing
No 5 Food Distribution
No 6 Professional Food Industry Expertise
No 7 Greening DTES Kitchens
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