Op-Ed | What good are human rights if you’re always hungry? We need a new benefit for groceries and essentials

"As the holiday season arrives, we are flooded with messages of food charity. While well-meaning, these efforts miss the mark. The root cause of hunger is a lack of income, not a lack of food. There is plenty of food to go around in Canada.

This holiday season, it’s time to shift our focus from charity to justice. Every person should have enough to eat, every day of the year.

Our nation is in the grip of a serious food insecurity crisis. Just last year, almost 1.8 million more Canadians struggled to put food on the table. Too many of our neighbours are finding it hard to live with dignity.

Poverty is not the result of individual failures; it stems from broken systems. This includes the rise of precarious work, soaring housing and food prices, and inadequate government assistance programs. Food banks may offer quick help, but they are just a temporary fix.

Individual charity, while well-intentioned and emotionally gratifying, doesn’t cut it when it comes to tackling structural issues. We need bold, systemic changes that go straight to the heart of the problem.

This means federal policies that improve incomes, ensure a range of affordable and supportive housing options, and create fair labour market standards. These are the tangible, long-term solutions to the crisis at hand."

Ahead of Human Rights Day on December 10, Jasmine Ramze Rezaee, Director of Policy and Community Action, writes about the importance of long-term solutions to the food insecurity crisis and our #Right2Food.