Poverty in Ontario
Key Statistics
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Over 400,000 people in Ontario used food banks in 2010, up 28% since the recession of 2008
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17% of children go hungry at least once per week
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41 % of adults go hungry at least once per week
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Single adults make up 38% of food bank users
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Single parents make up 30% of food bank users
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Two parent families make up 22% of food bank users
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Children under 18 make up 37% of the food bank users.
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Over 20,000 people are homeless
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More than 123,000 households are on the social housing waiting list
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30,000 Ontarians visit shelters in Toronto yearly
Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians are impoverished. The Ontarians most affected are new Canadians, those with disabilities, single parents and First Nations peoples. In 2000, 35.8% of new Canadians living in Ontario were impoverished with an unemployment rate of 11.5% while the unemployment rate for persons born in Canada is 4.9%. Over 40% of persons with disabilities live under the poverty line, and they are the most likely to be unemployed. The unemployment rate for the disabled is 49%. Almost one third of single parent households lives in poverty. First Nation household poverty rate is 34.2 %, double the non-First Nation rate of poverty. One in four children of First Nations households in Canada lives in poverty. Almost 4% of First Nations households do not have hot or cold running water or flush toilets. In Ontario, almost a quarter of a million people consider themselves of First Nation descent. Approximately 80,000 people live on remote reserves that are only accessible by plane or train and that too is limited to certain times in the year.
LifeBread Project
LifeCorps is providing bread to needy individuals in Ontarios York Region. Various types of fresh bread is picked up, packaged and delivered to individuals and organizations in the region that feed the hungry. It is estimated that LifeCorps helps feed over five hundred hungry people on a weekly basis through soup kitchens, food banks, assistance to the elderly, the homeless, people with disabilities, young mothers and shelters for women.
Partner organizations include:
The Newmarket Food Pantry
Mount Albert Food Pantry
Inn From the Cold
Newmarket Mobile Outreach
Rose of Sharon
Sandgate Women�™s Shelter
Community Housing Assistance To Seniors (CHATS, Aurora)
Community Housing Assistance To Seniors (CHATS, Richmond Hill)
Christian Horizons
Valleyview Alliance Church Community Dinner
Crosslands Church Community Dinner
Living Water Faith Fellowship
Catch the Fire-Newmarket
When available, bread is provided to the public at Living Water Faith Fellowship at the Sunday evening service and at Catch the Fire on Sunday morning services. Bread is also available at the Valleyview Alliance Church community dinner on Sunday afternoons and Crosslands Church community dinner on Wednesday afternoons. Please consult their web sites for more information.
