This winter we had more cold and snow than we have experienced in a few years, which was great for skiers and outdoor rinks. We have had some nice spring days, mixed with some not as nice, our typical March weather. Kingstonians were very generous in December, we received about 10,000 lbs less food than last year but an increase in monetary donations. Thank you for your generosity. A special thank you to our volunteers for their hard work and 135+ strong. Our volunteers provided over 14,850 hours to our cause last year.

This newsletter is a bit shorter than usual as we have been very busy preparing for our move to 4 Harvey Street. The final construction will continue, and we plan to move during the next six weeks. We will welcome our first clients to experience the new shopping area on April 29^th. We are extremely excited, to be able to have our clients indoors, out of the weather and give them the opportunity to choose their own food.

Once again 2024 set a new record for food hamper distribution, with 20,399 hampers given out and a record 9,131 people helped. This means that 1 in 17 people in Kingston and Loyalist Township received a food hamper from us, compared to 1 in 19 in 2023. You may have heard that in January the City of Kingston declared a Food Insecurity emergency. Unlike a “state of emergency,” this does not trigger any funding but does help to raise awareness of the struggles that our neighbours face. One of the most important pieces of that declaration was asking the province to increase Ontario Disability Support Payments (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) to a liveable amount. Currently, ODSP is less than $1,600/month and OW is less than $800/month. If the recipients of these two government support payments could receive a liveable amount, that could reduce the number of clients we serve by 40%. Please ask your MPP and Ontario political parties what they are doing to address legislated poverty, a problem that they all have been a part of.

Any attempts to plan for this year have been frustrating due to the ongoing threat of tariffs. While it can be tiresome to watch, we try to stay informed on the latest developments to ensure we are doing everything possible to prepare. Kingston has limited exposure to manufacturing, and based on past experiences, we usually feel economic shocks six months or so after.

I hope everyone gets out and enjoys the nicer days, it is where we can connect with the world and feel better about things.

Thank you for your support as we turn hunger into hope.

Jan. 1 Loyalist Community Sharing Centre: In 2024, donated $7,424.56 from their activities.

Jan 1 The Neighbourhood Sharing Centre: In 2024, donated $20,000 from their activities.

Jan 2 Caldwell Wealth & Advisory: collected 1640 lbs of food

Jan 2 Royal Canadian Legion Branch 560: collected 85 lbs of food.

Jan 31 Kingston Dodge: collected 505 lbs of food.

Feb 2 Kinsmen Dream Home: food bank volunteers attended the open house to answer questions.

Feb 6 Councillor Wendy Stephen in to sort food.

Feb 20 Kingston Christian School: dropped off their 122 lbs of food.

Feb. 21 Walmart / Kingston Police Community Volunteers: food drive 1,466 lbs of food & $2,364.98.

Mar. 4 Tallack Martial Arts collected 50 lbs of food

Mar. 4 Global Pet Foods: donated 115 lbs of pet food.

Mar 4 Urban Paws: donated 125 lbs of pet food.

Mar. 11 Armstrong Boys – Scouts Canada food drive in their neighbourhood for the second year in a row, collected $211 & 235 lbs of food,

Apr 12 Partners in Mission Food Bank: Food Blitz, look for our volunteer teams at your local grocery stores from 9am – 4 pm, collecting food and money.

June 7 Lobsterfest: Portuguese Cultural Centre, starting at 7pm to support Youth Diversion & Partners in Mission Food Bank. All you can eat for $150/person. For more information/tickets contact Philippe at lobsterfest@symphonyspa.ca or 613-583-2135.

February 19, 2025       Feed Ontario

Addressing poverty takes bold action.

If you lost your job tomorrow, how long would it take until you needed to use a food bank? This is becoming a more pressing question for many Ontarians due to our current economic uncertainty and is something for the new government to consider when working to build a more resilient Ontario.

Over the past two decades, we’ve endured a recession, a pandemic, unprecedented inflation, and the emerging threat of large-scale job losses. The future holds even more uncertainty: changing governments, a growing number of natural disasters due to climate change, and further strides in automation. On top of all of these unknowns, food banks are facing unsustainable levels of growth in need for their services, making the instability many in Ontario are experiencing as a result of these challenges even more precarious.

The need for a stronger social safety net

Most people are unable to weather these types of storms on their own. Between the rise in precarious work, the housing crisis, and recent spikes in inflation, having enough left over to save for a rainy day has become harder than ever. An astounding 47% of our neighbours report living paycheque to paycheque, and only 1 in 4 are able to cover an unexpected expense of $500 or more.

This is why our governments and communities built a social safety net over the course of many decades. For many Canadians, it is a point of pride as well as a source of comfort, helping to ensure that there would be a safe landing in the event of an emergency. It is also a matter of good public policy to stabilize our economy and prevent short-term setbacks from becoming long-term disasters.

Unfortunately, after years of disinvestments, this social safety net is weaker than ever. As a result, many Ontarians are far closer to needing to use a food bank than they may even realize.

Employment Insurance doesn’t protect many Ontarians

If you did lose your job tomorrow, your first step would likely be to apply for Employment Insurance (EI). However, while EI has been a mainstay of our social safety net since 1940, many are surprised to learn that most Ontarians aren’t able to quality for the program today. In November, less than a quarter of the 680,600 unemployed people in Ontario received EI, the lowest rate out of all the provinces. Even if you are eligible, the support is finite. On top of this, we’re currently seeing trends of unemployment in Ontario lasting longer, with long-term unemployment rates higher than they were after the 2008 global recession. EI wasn’t always this difficult to access. In the 1970s, to qualify for EI, a worker only needed to have worked 170 hours in the last year. Today, you need to have worked between 560 to 700 hours. This issue is compounded by the growth in precarious work, with more people working shorter and more unpredictable hours and therefore unable to qualify. EI does not cover the solo self-employed or gig workers, jobs which tend to be lower-paid and less stable to begin with, and that now make up 6% of Ontario’s workforce.

Ontario Works can make it harder to stay on your feet

If you are among the 3 in 4 unemployed Ontarians that don’t qualify for EI, you might turn to provincial social assistance, made up of Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). OW is designed to “help people in financial need find sustainable employment and achieve self-reliance.” Yet in many ways, the program can make it harder to stay on your feet, resulting in a temporary rough patch becoming a hole that is near-impossible to dig out of.

To qualify, you must first spend down most of your savings, including what you might have put away for retirement, increasing your long-term financial vulnerability. Once you’re on OW, the maximum amount you can receive is $733 a month, making it impossible to afford today’s cost of living. While the goal of the program is to support people while they work to find a good job, it’s incredibly difficult to do so under the stress of trying to live on $733 per month. When this amount doesn’t even cover the cost of your rent, much less your phone bill for calls from prospective employers, your transportation to get to an interview, or your breakfast so you can focus on the questions the hiring manager is asking you, struggling to get by can become a barrier to finding work.

Maybe you’re able to get a part-time job right away. With how difficult the job market is right now, perhaps landing work could feel like hitting the lottery. But then, while you’re working hard to make a good impression at your new position and pursuing chances to get more hours, you find out that for every dollar you earn, your OW cheque gets clawed back by 50 cents. Perhaps you’re not so lucky, and you join the 27% of unemployed Ontarians who’ve been out of work for more than half a year. If that $733 a month doesn’t cover your rent now, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find a new place you can afford when the average asking price for a bachelor apartment in Ontario is $1,777. In that case, you may end up among the more than 22,000 OW recipients who are experiencing homeless (a rate double just two years ago), and your monthly cheque drops down to $343 because you are no longer eligible to receive the “shelter” portion of the benefit.

The percentage of Ontarians remaining unemployed for 6 months or more, 2009 vs. 2025. Data from Statistics Canada.

Food banks are seeing unsustainable growth in need for their services

It’s understandable that many people who have had to turn to OW eventually need to access a food bank to get by. The realities of OW mean that you will most likely need the support of your community to make ends meet, perhaps sooner than you ever thought possible. Unfortunately, your food bank is already facing a rapid increase in demand for emergency food assistance, as you have joined the over one million Ontarians from all walks of life who will visit a food bank this year.

Food banks are up against the same economic pressures everyone in the province is experiencing, and fewer people in the community have been able to support their work through donations. At the same time, the amount of visitors food banks are serving has doubled since 2018, and some food banks have reported that those who once donated are now turning to them for help. Food banks typically receive little to no government funding, and are being forced to do more with less resources available, stretching them beyond their limits.

A better future is possible

Although this fate sounds bleak, it is not inevitable. We used to have a robust system of income support programs and affordable housing, and we can have one again. A better future is possible, but it requires us to build popular support for a stronger social safety net and call on the government to create policies that will build it back up.

While we are glad to see provincial parties calling on the federal government to urgently reform EI, there are many improvements that the new provincial government can make to Ontario Works to ensure that those who fall on hard times stay on their feet. Increasing financial support provided by OW and ODSP would give people a higher and more stable floor from which to rebuild. Reducing clawbacks on earnings and other benefits would allow people to keep more of their money while they regain financial independence. Ensuring that everyone receives a consistent level of support, regardless of living situation, would help to prevent homelessness. Excluding resources like RRSPs from the eligibility test for OW would mean that people no longer have to drain their retirement savings to access temporary help during their working years.

Much about Ontario’s economic future remains uncertain. There is no crystal ball to tell us what the outcomes of the threats we face now will be, and there is so much that we cannot control. However, it is firmly within our power to shore up our social safety net so we are better able to weather the storms of tomorrow. It’s time to take this opportunity to prioritize people and a build more resilient Ontario.