But the weeks leading up to Christmas are vital for food banks, charities seeking public help
The public believes that homelessness and poverty are two of the most pressing issues in Canada today. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians ranked poverty, homelessness and related issues as the most pressing social problems in Canada, in a study by The Salvation Army. And over the last two years, food bank use in Canada has risen by 28%—an unprecedented rate of growth. HungerCount 2010—a report by Canada’s food banks—shows that the effects of the recession are still being felt across the country.
The weeks leading up to Christmas and the holiday season are vital to the organizations that serve Canada’s poor and hungry. The donations to food banks during this period help to provide supplies for up to six months into the new year. And The Salvation Army’s Christmas campaign raises funds to provide direct, compassionate, hands-on service to more than 1.6 million people in Canada each year.
We speak with Martin McCarter of The Salvation Army in Nanaimo, Mike Counsell of Nanaimo’s Loaves & Fishes Food Bank, and Nanaimo News Bulletin reporter Rachel Stern, who has just written a series about poverty called “Living Below the Line.”
