Raise the Hammer

Moylek: You just do not get it, you are thick headed, you are too busy pushing your point, instead of listening, I mean really listening.

A person on welfare get 585.00 per month and for the most part, all of that IS PAID ON SHELTER, DO YOU GET THAT CONCEPT.

Other places do not have cooking facilities but these are points that you choose to ignore.

Also you have the impression that people who are poor who have no clue how to cook, again, that comes across as arrogance, you are speaking about people you do not know, you make assumptions about people.

Most people who struggle on welfare want healthy food, fresh fruits and vegetables, but they cannot afford to buy them becuase they do not get enough money to live on and what food they do get from the foodbanks is processed, high in sugar, salt, fats, sometimes the food is rotten, sometimes the food has bugs in it. The food banks are only inspected once a year, they do not label products that are given out in bulk, those putting those who have food allergies at risk. And the food banks themselves use fear and intimidation, the people accessing services feel a definite line, us vs them. And even though the higher ups at one particular food bank has stated that if people get rotten or expired food, this person said they can hand it back and get new stuff, to bad the front line staff do not seem to follow that policy. I guess it will take calling these higher ups out on a carpet publically so that everyone knows what the policy is, which would include their own staff.

Some of the food banks do not have access for those that are disabled, they must leave their wheelchairs and scooters outside, there have been reports of them being stolen. Who knows if the buildings themselves are safe and inspected or follow building codes. People in wheelchairs have a really hard time getting the food home, because they have to take what is given them, which is at times very heavy, lots of cans.

Instead of raising the welfare rates, you as a tax payer are too busy paying for the 50 million agencies, who suck away tax dollars and do very little for people. And of course, many of them are covered by union contract and they have the audicity to force people into minimum wage jobs, where your rights as an employee are not always enforced. They will force you into jobs where you will not get paid for a number of weeks and that does not matter what skill level you may have. Many of them do not know employment standards or occupational health and safety. And what earnings you may make are penalized, which makes it almost impossible to break the welfare wall. And of course, those single parents who have children over the age of thirteen actually are getting less money then they were before, with the implementation of the Ontario Child Benefit, because they are still clawbacking monies off the cheques, yet if you ask the head of social service shere in Hamilton, that personwill say it is not a clawback, but when you look up the defininion, it is a clawback. Never mind the fact even if a person wanted to back to school, once the accept OSAP, which will not cover all your living expenses anyways, your children are cut off all MEDICAL BENEFITS.

Do you realize that the city paid 500,000 last year to the food banks.

But then that is what happened when Harris privatized the system, you as a taxpayer pay more, then you did before, yet more people are suffering. You know nothing, I suugest you spend more time listening instead of talking.