Homelessness, housing in bad repair and malnutrition can make you sick, both physically and mentally. Yet when we talk about healthcare we rarely talk about addressing root causes and mostly focus on things like wait lists and doctor shortages. Although tremendously important issues, we should not forget about these social determinants of health, says regular contributor Alex Kronstein.
In this powerful video Nova Scotians who know about welfare first hand are asked to describe Income Assistance in three words. It takes them all of 49 seconds to tell us that social assistance in Nova Scotia is broken.
Human rights lawyer Vince Calderhead tackles last month’ budget and the election. The realization that the inequality in our society is actually a political decision raises hard questions, he writes. These are questions not just for our political leaders but also for ourselves as members of a society that repeatedly select politicians who by their choices, maintain poverty and malnutrition. When are we, as a society, going to tell our political candidates and leaders that we will not tolerate poverty in our society?
People on welfare will have an even harder time making ends meet in the upcoming year, thanks to a provincial budget that ignores their plight.
MLAs have lots of helpful suggestions for Feed Nova Scotia. “Let me tell you, couponing gets you a lot of stuff for very little money,” Liberal MLA Joyce Treen told Feed Nova Scotia’s executive director. Meanwhile, government is giving the organization that distributes 7,000 kilograms of food all cross Nova Scotia daily all of $12,000.
A new report by FoodARC confirms what people on social assistance or making minimum wage have always known. Being poor means going hungry or being undernourished.
At the Nova Scotia Advocate we hate food banks with a vengeance. It is also one of our favourite charities. Let Glenn tell you why. Check it out, it only takes a couple of minutes.
Food bank use in Nova Scotia spiked 20.9% over last year—the highest increase among provinces in the country. It’s also a 40.9% increase over 2008. It’s also the new normal. Hard to believe there was a time nobody even knew what a food bank was.
This weekend’s documentary looks at the relationship between the indigenous community in urban Halifax and food. It’s about accessing traditional foods as a way to hold on to your culture, and how to do that if your main food source is the Superstore, or even a food bank. Check it out!
Op-ed: Today’s budget announcement that social assistance will increase by $20 falls so far short of what is needed that it is laughable.