Response to summertime drop in donations: Steelworkers Humanity Fund contributes $90,000 to Canadian food banks

TORONTO – United Steelworkers’ (USW) National Director Ken Neumann today announced contributions by the Steelworkers Humanity Fund of $90,000 to food banks across Canada in communities where USW members live and work.Neumann, who is also president of the Humanity Fund, said the contributions are being distributed now instead of Christmas, “in response to requests from food banks to contribute at a time when the need is great, but when most Canadians are not contributing.

“These contributions are made in hope, but also out of frustration. We hope that the contributions of USW members, through the Steelworkers Humanity Fund, will help alleviate the hardship faced by thousands of poor and vulnerable Canadians across the country. At the same time there is a sense of frustration that contributions to food banks are necessary at all in a country as wealthy as Canada.”
Neumann said the facts speak for themselves, namely:

– Every month more than 700,000 Canadians rely on food banks;
– Almost five million Canadians live in poverty;
– Poverty among Aboriginal groups remains appallingly high both on and off reserves;
– The Campaign 2000 Report Card for 2007 shows that the child poverty rate was 11.7 per cent in 2007 – exactly the same as it was in 1989.

“The USW again calls on governments at all levels to make poverty reduction an urgent and ongoing priority,” said Neumann. “There are well-thought-out proposals and projects aimed at seriously addressing issues of poverty in Canada, including child poverty, poverty endemic among First Nations and recent immigrants and refugees.”

The USW participates in several national and community-based coalitions advocating concrete measures to address poverty. The union also calls on governments to immediately raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour; expand affordable housing; build a universally-accessible child care system; and invest in programs such as Employment Insurance and the Child Tax Benefit.

“What is urgently required is a national poverty-reduction program that includes a good-jobs strategy,” said Neumann.

For more information on poverty in Canada, and what can be done, visit the following:

www.campaign2000.ca;
www.colourofpoverty.ca;
www.cafb-acba.ca (Canadian Association of Food Banks);
www.Makepovertyhistory.ca;
http://www.labourcouncil.ca/notworking.pdf for a copy of “Work Isn’t Working for Ontario Families: The Role of Good Jobs in Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy”;
www.growinggap.ca (Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives).

The Steelworkers Humanity Fund is a registered charitable organization (11917 2278 RR0001) founded by the United Steelworkers in 1985. Steelworker members contribute to the Fund through clauses negotiated into collective agreements, which most commonly provide for a contribution of $20 per year per union member. In a number of important collective agreements matching contributions have been negotiated from employers.

The mandate of the Steelworkers Humanity Fund is to address issues of hunger and poverty, primarily in the developing world, through development assistance and emergency aid.

Food Banks receiving contributions from Steelworkers Humanity Fund (pdf)

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CONTACTS:
Ken Neumann, 416.487.1571 or 416.558.2510;
Doug Olthuis (Executive Director, Steelworkers Humanity Fund), 416.544.5957