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.

Food security is obtained when every person in a community has access to safe and nutritious food that meets their health and cultural needs. Without everyone having equal access in a dignified manner, food security does not exist.

As an example, having access to the food bank does not translate to equal access to food. Although food banks are doing their best, they are not a sustainable option, and cannot possibly provide safe, nutritious food to meet the health and cultural needs of everyone at their doorstep. A better strategy would be to work toward poverty prevention.

One day last week, a server set down a pork loin with mashed potatoes and a fresh green salad before me, along with a slice of thick, locally baked raisin bread. Oh my.

Today, the chef is patting together arepas - cornmeal cakes - and stirring a giant pot of shredded vegetables on the stove.

The Stop is a food bank - or, at least, that's how it started. It still offers food hampers to 6,500 people each month from the ground floor of a social housing complex on Davenport Rd. just west of Caledonia Park Rd.

But it's not like any food bank you've seen before, if you've been unfortunate enough to have to use one. In fact, it breaks all the well-groomed food bank stereotypes.

Right now, Ontario's minimum wage has been frozen for three years. It gets harder every day to make ends meet on $10.25 an hour. 534,000 workers in Ontario make minimum wage, nearly one in ten workers in the province. The three-year freeze has effectively lowered their income by 7%.

On Thursday, March 21st, ACORN members are going join with allies across Ontario to send a message to the provincial government: the minimum wage needs to go up to $14 an hour now, and it needs to be indexed to inflation.

The soaring number of food banks providing emergency supplies to people in economic difficulty has prompted the British government to launch an inquiry into efforts to tackle what care professionals dub "hidden hunger".

A consortium of charities now claim the government risks breaching its international human rights obligations on poverty and aim to submit a report to the United Nations, in a bid to hold officials to account.

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