Elderly volunteers in Ontario have launched a campaign to make food banks obsolete and reduce poverty in their communities so they can retire by age 90.

As food banks struggle to cope with rising demand, they - and politicians - could learn valuable lessons from volunteers in Canada about the precarious nature of charity food provision.

Curiously, 50 Ways to Close the Food Bank is not sung by impatient young Marxists, but wise old mainstays of the community in Sudbury, Ontario. The "big society", if you like. For years they have been volunteers at the local food banks. And they've had enough.

What if the little old ladies who run the neighborhood church food pantry rebelled? What if they said "we're 70 years old, we've been feeding people for 20 years, and hell if we want to do it for another 20?" What if they demanded that the government reduce the incidence of poverty so that food pantries don't need to exist in the first place?

Hard to imagine? Well, that's exactly what has happened in the province of Ontario.

'Dignified access to food for all' is a value articulated in the York Region Food Charter. Join us for an informative conversation about the relationship between food charity and food security in York Region.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013 @ 8931 Woodbine Avenue, Markham, Ontario

Guest speakers: Valerie Tarasuk, Professor, University of Toronto

Yvonne Kelly, Volunteer Co-Facilitator, Freedom 90

If you are willing to take a leadership role to strengthen the social infastructure in Newmarket, the United Way is there for support.

A group of residents, volunteers, organization representatives and politicians shared ideas at the Newmarket Community Centre and Lions Hall during the second meeting house hosted by United Way York Region.

The event built on the first meeting, in January 2012, which was at the Newmarket Public Library. More than 60 people gathered to talk about issues facing the community, including access to affordable housing, transportation barriers, education and employment.

We need a raise in the minimum wage to $14 an hour now because:

A strong minimum wage will help workers, our communities and boost our economy.

Working full-time should raise us above the poverty line.

Working 35 hours a week, we need $14 an hour to get 10% above the poverty line (LIM) in 2013.

The minimum wage has been frozen for 3 years while rent, food and transit costs have soared! It's time to melt the freeze, and then index the minimum wage to the cost of living each year.

Volunteers at food banks and meal programs earn their angel wings. They beat the bushes for funds, do a loaves-and-fishes routine with scarce resources, and keep hunger at bay for thousands.

And they get tired. Not of the work but of the grinding poverty that keeps so many showing up month after month and constantly sends new people through their doors. So volunteers in Ontario have formed a union. They call it the Freedom 90 Union "because we want to retire from volunteering at food banks or emergency meal programs - before we are 90 years old!"

Unfreeze minimum wage. Increase it to $14 an hour. Then index it to the rate of inflation.

Sounds simple enough.

The only question now is whether the Wynne Liberals will listen to anti-poverty and labour groups or bow to pressure from the business community who say an increase will only lead to cutbacks in the number of minimum wage workers.

We tend not to think of the poor in small towns because Toronto is a big town; oh, hell, we don't think much about the poor here, either.

But at least in Toronto we have shelters, such as they are; services, such as they are: hospitals, food banks, meal programs, and the clothing banks here are so good that you cannot tell income or status by looking at the way a person dresses.

We also have buses, streetcars and subways to get from one service to another, even if transit is pricey.

All of which is to say I was in Newmarket the other day for a nifty little public policy event when, on the way into the hall, I noticed a car in the parking lot, jammed to the roof with stuff; clothing, food, sleeping bags; just stuff. Somebody moving?

The woman I was with said she knew the driver, and the driver was homeless, and lived in her car. The point?

I want to join a union.

No, not one of the traditional unions like the Canadian Auto Workers, who were recruiting among United Church ministers a while back. The union I want to join is The Union of Food Bank and Emergency Meal Program Volunteers. Sponsored by the York Region Food Network, they have a great web site at www.freedom90.ca. Check it out.

The UFBEMPV (now doesn't that just roll off the tongue?) has no union dues. As volunteers at food banks and emergency meal programs, members have already paid their dues.

York Region figured prominently in Canada's first interactive right to food Internet video conference, which linked 45 organizations in each of the nation's provinces and territories over nine time zones to Geneva, Switzerland...

The computer-enabled event featured Mr. De Schutter's report on his 2012 right to food mission to Canada, a coast-to-coast fact-finding commission with food rights stakeholders and government officials...

York Region was represented by Newmarket LAMP community lunch program volunteer Teresa Porter. She asked Mr. De Schutter about the dangers of Canada's reliance on a volunteer and charity-driven food system as opposed to a concerted focus on poverty - the underlying cause of food insecurity...

"The issue should be treated as a priority," he replied, noting it needs to be co-ordinated on municipal, provincial and federal levels.

As the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter prepares to deliver his report on Canada to the UN Council on Human Rights in Geneva on March 4, Food Secure Canada members and friends are organizing communities events in every single province and territory! Food Secure Canada has called upon the government to take the rapporteur's recommendations seriously.

...

The national web-based Conversation between the Special rapporteur and organizations across the country will take place at noon (EST) on March 4 in English and March 5 in French. Communities are gathering in food banks, universities, offices, town halls and other places to participate in the event. The rapporteur will present his report, followed by a period of questions and comments from the audience, and most community events will then host a local discussion around what can be done to improve respect for food in their communities.

Freedom 90 Union ... never heard of them? That makes two of us ... until now. The main page of their tongue-in-cheek site reads: "We are forming the Freedom 90 Union because we want to retire from volunteering at food banks or emergency meal programs-before we are 90 years old!" Many of them have been working at food banks for 20 years ... and they have had it! They demand that the Government of Ontario end poverty! They demand that the Government of Ontario make food banks unnecessary! They demand that the Government of Ontario lay them off (yes, that is exactly what they say)! (They also demand that the Government of Ontario freeze their wages ... or double them ... it makes no difference; they are unpaid volunteers! Ha!)

Should food banks last forever?

That's the question one provincial group is asking during the annual Thanksgiving food drives currently in motion across the province.

Freedom 90, an association of food banks and emergency meal program volunteers, says there should be an end to the need for food banks and emergency meal programs in Ontario, a province wealthy enough to supply it's residents with adequate nourishment.

It is time for the 2012 Thanksgiving food drives.

Ottawa Food Bank - needs 250,000 pounds of food and $100,000 in cash
Barrie Food Bank - needs 130,000 pounds of food
Cambridge Self Help Food Bank - needs 110,000 pounds of food
The amounts involved are mind-boggling, and they get larger every year! The drives bring attention to poverty, but do they provide a permanent solution?

Kristine Carbis is passionate about improving people's lives.

The Newmarket resident isn't sure where she developed her need to volunteer and can't even pinpoint when she decided it was time to take an active role in advocating for people living in poverty.

Forget retiring by age 55, some people are looking to retire (in some cases for a second time) from their current line of work by age 90. Can they do it?

I hope so!

How are they going to do it? By adopting a time honoured way of working together and organizing: they're going to form a union! A union of food bank volunteers in fact. Calling themselves the Freedom 90 Union (check them out by clicking here) they have a few simple demands.

Many Canadians are marking national Hunger Awareness Week (May 7-11) by digging into their pantry or their wallets to give extra food or cash to their local food bank. But a fledgling new organization called the Freedom 90 Union is taking a totally different approach. Its founding members, many in their seventies and eighties, want to be put out of their food bank and meal program volunteer jobs before they reach age 90. They are getting tired, and they never imagined they'd have to keep doing this work year after year.

A press conference was held yesterday at All Saints Church Community Centre in downtown Toronto marking the official launch of the Freedom 90 Union campaign. The event was timed to coordinate with the beginning of National Hunger Awareness Week.

Premier Dalton McGuinty's provincial budget, even as recently amended, does not do enough to reduce poverty in the view of volunteers at Ontario's food banks and emergency meal programs. They are therefore creating a new voice in the public debate about Ontario poverty: Freedom 90, a 'union' of volunteers.

Teresa Porter sits down and takes a deep breath. It's the first time the senior has had a chance to sit down all day. It's always like that on Tuesdays, when the 70-year-old grandmother spends her morning coordinating a free lunch program at Trinity United Church in Newmarket. But her reasons for volunteering go beyond a simple desire to give back to her community. Her commitment to feeding the hungry, the "hidden poor" in affluent York Region, is a little more personal. She knows all too well, she says, what it is like to be on the brink of poverty.