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Food banks: grocers to the young and highly educated Cutbacks to the federal Unemployment Insurance program are being felt all the way down the line--right to the food bank line. A decade's worth of tightened eligibility rules and reduced payments [see "Money held hostage," cover story, June 18 Mirror] are having an impact upon all segments of society--not just those prone to chronic unemployment. Says Kevin Hayes of the Canadian Labour Congress: "We used to say that cuts to UI were sending people straight to the welfare lines. Now, with cuts to welfare, they're sending people straight to the food-bank lines." >> Hayes isn't kidding. Linda Jacobs Starkey, a PhD candidate at McGill's School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, recently completed a preliminary study of people who use food banks. The results are startling. The average age of those who use a food bank is 41 years. In all, 42 per cent live alone. And 39 per cent of all food-bank users have received either a university or a technical school education. >> In addition, 83 per cent of all food-bank users are on welfare, while only 5 per cent are on pogey--a reflection, perhaps, of how few people are actually receiving UI benefits. >> A final note: Starkey points out that 43 per cent said Canada was their country of origin. "There's this perception of food-bank users as being either old people, single mothers or recent immigrants who can't make ends meet," says Starkey. "It's simply not the case." --Philip Preville
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