{"id":49775,"date":"2021-04-01T14:30:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T18:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=49775"},"modified":"2021-04-01T14:30:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T18:30:13","slug":"ottawa-mutual-aid-networks-overwhelmed-by-increasing-requests-for-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/ottawa-mutual-aid-networks-overwhelmed-by-increasing-requests-for-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa mutual aid networks overwhelmed by increasing requests for food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ottawa Street Medics (OSM) and Ottawa Food not Bombs have been concerned about the growing need for food in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Over the last weeks,\u00a0OSM has reported an increase in requests for food. Daniel Bailey, founder of OSM, explained what the situation has been for his community group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand has been completely overwhelming,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cWe can show up to any shelter and in front there will be around 20 starving people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jen Bongondo, an organizer for Ottawa Food not Bombs, said she also noticed an increase in need for food.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been an increase in meals and fresh produce,\u201d Bongondo said. \u201cAnd the need for that has definitely been highest we\u2019ve seen since we started.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Food Bank said in an email statement that there is not a food shortage in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

\"We have heard anecdotally that service in the food bank network in Ottawa has intensified a bit at the moment, but it\u2019s not necessarily something that has been reflected in our tracking at this time,\" the food bank stated. \"The feedback that we\u2019re hearing reflects that families and individuals are currently requesting more food than the usual allotment. There could be a few reasons for this \u2013 but all speculation at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey said that unhoused and impoverished people have told him the reason there is a need for more support is because people are prioritizing their other bills and living costs over food costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are running into lots of people who have never experienced this before,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cPeople with kids who have gotten their hours cut because of COVID-19 simply cannot make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bongondo said she feels that although the requests for food have not yet overwhelmed the Ottawa Food Bank, smaller community groups have been feeling the pressure. She said this fact alone should be enough to get people to care.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t numbers, they aren\u2019t just a cell in an Excel sheet,\u201d Bongondo said. \u201cOurselves and OSM are in the community\u2026we are seeing the real-world impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t just look at food insecurity as a statistical thing,\u201d Bongondo continued. \u201cIt is a real-life issue that is impacting real people on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey said there are two ways to help those in need. On a small scale, people can go into their community and provide support.<\/p>\n

Bailey said the larger solution is to pressure the government to provide more support for Canada\u2019s vulnerable communities.\u00a0He referenced a graph showing the number of active COVID-19 cases in Canada. During the period that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was available, Canada reached its lowest number of active cases during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A

Graph of active COVID-19 cases in Canada over time. Data from Health Canada.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe larger answer is to pressure our government at every level to do better,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cWe can do things like provide housing and pressure for legislation for landlords to create rent control so people don\u2019t have to pay all of their money every month just to live.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ottawa Street Medics (OSM) and Ottawa Food not Bombs have been concerned about the growing need for food in Ottawa. Over the last weeks,\u00a0OSM has reported an increase in requests for food. Daniel Bailey, founder of OSM, explained what the situation has been for his community group. \u201cThe demand has been completely overwhelming,\u201d Bailey said.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":49779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223],"tags":[4828,2019,7724,3753,7723,4826],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49775"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=49775"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=49775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}