Food Bank Pros And Cons

Hunger remains a prevalent issue in our society, as Power (2011) stated 1 in 4 Canadians go hungry. If these numbers are accurate closing food banks would be unethical and cruel; it will leave vulnerable individuals with no viable options. Depression, stress, anxiety, and chronic diseases for e.g diabetes are caused by lack of food. Sapolsky (2005). Apart from being an important social determinant of health, food is one of the basic human rights referenced in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948, it states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and their family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.” Moreover, “Food Programs

2) Kinder, Gentler Help- Visitors expressed a decided preference for the treatment they received in emergency food programs, in contrast to their experiences in income maintenance centers. 3) Prevention of Waste- food passing through emergency food programs would otherwise go to waste. This is true of the products donated to food banks that would otherwise have ended up in landfills, and even more so of the food "rescued" from restaurants, caterers, and institutions by prepared and perishable food programs.” Furthermore, food is a basic human need and fundamental human right, ratified by the federal government in 1976 in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; government is the “primary duty bearer” to “respect, protect and fulfill the right to

I believe that, if there were no emergencies, the need for food banks would naturally decline. Poppendieck (1994) noted that food banks “has come to represent a sort of early warning system or barometer of poverty.” If there are 1 in 4 people using food banks in Canada, food banks are our barometer signalling something is fundamentally wrong.

One acknowledges that food banks are not the entire solution to the issue of ending hunger. But, food banks are an essential part of the current and the best existing solution, until there is an implementation of a solid contingency plan to phase out the dependency on