Ninety advocates from communities north, south, east and west across Ontario, about half people living on low incomes, convened in Hamilton on Friday, December 4 to mark the first anniversary of the Ontario Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.
While all assembled were pleased that the Government had made a commitment to reducing children’s poverty by 25% in five years, they strongly urged the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan to create a poverty-free Ontario.
The focus of the day was on the Put Food in the Budget Campaign, advocating for the introduction of a $100 a month Healthy Food Supplement for all adults on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Supports program. Jointly sponsored by 25 in 5 Hamilton, the Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) and The Stop Community Food Centre, the day-long session combined a series of public statements by anti-poverty activists with lived experience of poverty and their supporters with an afternoon of strategy discussion on the next steps in the PFIB campaign.
