HD – wherever there’s a system there’s going to be abuse, but we can’t use that as an excuse to withhold assistance.

Bob – you were doing pretty well there in the 1st paragraph, then you lost me again. Why should people who have less money than others have to live by different rules when it comes to basic human needs? Why shouldn’t they be allowed to buy junk food like the rest of us or blow some of their grocery money or rent money on a new winter coat for their kid if they want to? Does being poor automatically make you an incompetent moron who needs every aspect of his life carefully monitored? Poverty has a thousand faces. There are families with both parents working at whatever job they can get who still can’t make ends meet because housing takes up 80% of their wages. There are people who are disabled or the elderly whose pensions barely stretch to 2 weeks, let alone 4; women with very young children abandoned by their husbands and an ineffectual spousal support recovery system. All these people are perfectly capable of choosing their own groceries.

Josie – Yes, very true. It’s convenient to assume people are poor because they’re lazy, drunk, shiftless losers who spend all their time figuring out ways to spyphon more tax dollars off of us regular working stiffs.

Poverty is a huge issue, and it always amazes me that in countries like Canada and the U.S., there are so many people living in poverty. I think it’s like so many things, people tend to “blame the victim”, so not much effort is put into helping the situation overall. It’s like Scrooge said, “Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?” People say, “Can’t they get jobs?”

I think more effort is put into helping stray animals in North American than is put into helping “stray” people.

As for food banks, perhaps one solution would be electronic cards that could only be used at grocery stores, thereby allowing people to select their own groceries, and preserve their dignity. For all anyone would know, they’d just be buying groceries on debit cards. The obvious drawback would be the potential to buy crap, instead of the real food, diapers, milk, etc.

My mother used to work in a soup kitchen (sorry, I don’t know the correct word in English) as a food/volunteers coordinator. There were no meals at the beginning of the month when people on welfare received their cheques. Only rule was that if a child came, they had to feed them. Needless to say, they had their regulars. And this was in a small town east of Montreal.

I agree with you, the system is flawed but would giving them money really be the answer? Yes, there are many who would be like you and me, who would use it wisely, buying food. For all genuine cases (and god knows there are so many) there are many more who are abusing the system. There are some welfare recipients who haven’t known anything else but welfare and who will continue the same trend. Vicious circle…

What’s the solution? I have no idea. I hope a good and fair solution is found for everyone.