Episode description

It’s the holidays, and on your TV or radio you’re inevitably hit with ads telling you that this is the season of giving - it’s time to donate to a food drive. Conservative politicians, Liberal politicians, banks, broadcasters, grocery stores: they all are united in this message.

With the promotion of food banks from virtually every institution and elected official in the country, you might conclude that they are the best solution to food insecurity.

Except - they’re not. Food bank use in Canada is at an all-time high, and experts, community organizers, even staff at food banks say that the growing need just shows how our government has failed to address poverty and hold corporations to account. 

In this episode: 

Kitty Raman Costa, Executive Director, Parkdale Community Food Bank

Dr. Valerie Tarasuk, Principal Investigator at PROOF, University of Toronto.

Jade Guthrie, Community Learning and Engagement Manager, FoodShare

Professor Dennis Raphael of York’s School of Health Policy and Management

Further reading: 

• HungerCount 2022, Food Banks Canada
• Supermarkets are hiking prices faster than necessary — and profiting from inflation, Star investigation suggests, by Marco Chown Oved, Toronto Star
• Why are Canadians in need still forced to rely on food banks? By Jade Guthrie, rabble.ca
• Take the money and run: how food banks became complicit with Walmart Canada’s hunger producing employment practices, by Zsofia Mendly-Zambo, Dennis Raphael and Alan Taman

Sponsors: Rakuten, Oxio, Freshbooks, Article

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