Vibrant Communities Calgary

Tomato Soup and a Living Wage

Guest Blog from Timothy Wild of the Living Wage Action Team (LWAT)

A couple of weeks ago, a cardboard box mysteriously appeared in the lunch room at work. Attached to the box was a sign saying “Food Bank”. I don’t know who was actually organizing the drive, but over the subsequent days, co-workers donated various soups, teas and crackers. And, yes, those soups included the ubiquitous generic tomato variety!

I have a number of problems with food banks (and drives). First, there is the quality issue. Why do people give generic soups when they themselves would only have Campbell’s? Why do we give our cast off cans to charity, things that we ourselves would not eat? Why don’t we employ the principle that nothing is too good for the working class? Secondly, from a policy standpoint, as noted by Labour Party politician Nye Bevan “private charity can never be a substitute for organized justice”. Sure, Calgary is a generous city, but should the basic physical well-being of people be institutionally reliant on the ebbs and flows of charitable giving?

Despite the fact that food banks (perhaps) create their own demand, there is the commonly presented argument that without food banks more people would go hungry or even starve. Personally, I don’t believe that. I think that if food banks were closed down, public outrage would result in the creation of public policies that would promote authentic and ongoing food security for all Canadians. Government programmes supporting the basic rights of citizenship would be developed and implemented. That, however, is getting into the realm of politics.

Still, food insecurity remains a problem in Alberta. The recent report In This Together: Ending Poverty in Alberta, published by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, the Alberta College of Social Workers and Public Interest Alberta, showed that there has been a substantial increase in food bank use between 2008 and 2011. And, “despite the indications of economic recovery, food bank use in March 2011 is only slightly lower than the year before”. The document then showed that “over 27% of the people assisted by food banks reported employment income”. So, it is not only people outside of the work-income nexus who face the unacceptable grind of not having enough to eat. There is also an obvious link to low wages, food insecurity and food bank use.

And this is not only people working for the obscenely low minimum wage. It is also a problem for people earning less than the living wage of at least $12.50/hour plus benefits or $13.75 without benefits. Many of these are low-paid workers are women, and, given socially constructed familial roles, it is hardly surprising that “children and youth make up 44% of those turning to food banks for help in 2011”. There are very few independently poor children! Children who are poor live in families that are poor!

Put simply, people who work less for less than a Living Wage do not enjoy the same basic choices that the rest of us have. Essentially, this leads to marginalization, and a constant and unremitting focus on money (paying the bills etc) rather than being able to meet the basic costs of living and then having time to dream…and work towards attaining those dreams. It is about people making their own choices for food. It is about dignity and participation. It is about justice. That is why I think a Living Wage is such an important start towards a fair and equitable incomes policy…at any time of the year.