THURSDAY
S I N C E
NOVEMBER 6, 2014
1 8 9 5
Vol. 119, Issue 174
105
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Farewell to the fairway
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PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
Local food bank usage follows national trend BY SHERI REGNIER Times Staff
Anyone watching the news probably remembers seeing many stories about the increasing use of food banks across Canada. The most recent Hunger Count Canada (2013 statistics) released on Monday, shows that in five years, food bank usage rose by 20 per cent in the province. That translates into 94,000 British Columbians a year, needing a hand up to make ends meet. Trail is part of the trend. All the local food banks report that their services grow year-to year with more people seeking help to feed themselves or their families with weekly rations or monthly hampers. The Trail Salvation Army Family Services reports a 17 per cent increase in food bank usage since this same time last year. In October alone, the Rossland Avenue site has supplied mostly young families and single men with 585 food hampers. The organization's soup kitchen served up 1,410 meals throughout the month and on top of that, launched a new program that focuses on school aged children called the Lunch Program. Every two weeks a parent can pick up an additional box of sustenance that contains granola bars, fruit, juice boxes, bread and lunch meat so his or her child has a daily lunch at school. “It's hard for people to come in and ask for help,” says Linda Radtke, from the Trail branch. “That's why we always say we are not giving a hand out, we are giving a hand up.”
An underlying problem, according to Hunger Count, is that although the country is in a time of apparent economic recovery, the root of the problem is low income – both short and long term. This includes the Greater Trail area after a local gender-based study by Women Creating Change, showed that one-third of the local female labour force works in lower-wage occupations. The report highlighted the fact that in a two-parent-two-child family, each parent must work 35 hours a week, and earn $18.15 per hour for a net income of $60,000 to live in Greater Trail – and that's nothing extravagant, just basics like healthcare, transportation and child care. Additionally, the report revealed than the share of single parent Income Assistance caseloads in the Lower Columbia was 29 per cent, which is higher than the B.C. average of 25 per cent in Sept. 2011. Dorothy, (who only gave her first name due to the food bank's privacy guidelines) a long time volunteer at the Beaver Valley United Church food bank, says the need for the Fruitvale-based service fluctuates, as do the people accessing it. Young couples and young families to seniors or those on disability have accessed the church's food hamper program, which is held every Thursday. She maintains that the growing use of food banks isn't about numbers– rather it's a human interest story. “People are almost apologetic for having to come to the food bank,” she said. “They are all very appreciative, “Dorothy explained. “But there are very different reasons for needing help. Our idea is not to furnish them with all the food they need,
it's to be a stop gap to help them through a period when everything seems to run out, or until their next cheque.” Within rural B.C., the Hunger Count report identifies women as the largest demographic sector accessing food banks, and the household type is mostly single people followed by single families. In Radtke's experience as services manager at the Trail Salvation Army branch,
those percentages are reflective of Trail, because she notes most clients are single men, followed by young families. “Even when it's a couple or family that needs the hamper, the male almost always comes in to pick it up,” she added. “For quite awhile now, most of our hampers are going to single men, not women.” To donate to the Beaver Valley Food Bank, contact Dorothy at (250) 367-9965.
bunched similar questions together and gave each candidate an equal chance to answer. First up, candidates were asked to voice their thoughts on recreation, the deal made with Trail and what they want to see in the future for Fruitvale. Incumbent Bert Kniss claimed the answer to Fruitvale's recreation issue comes down to getting concrete numbers. “The point that we keep coming back to is, what are the real numbers?” he said. “Now information is available and I feel that a lot of the information that has been coming out to us has been very hard to believe. Our job as councillors is to be
fiscally responsible. What are people being asked to pay for and what are we getting for that?” Candidate Stephen Morissette had some concerns about the current reimbursement program and the impact it may have on families and residents with lower incomes. “It is probably hardest on lower income people that can't afford to put out that extra money to go to the pool and then wait for reimbursement,” he said, adding that a new, but fair deal is needed to close the gap between money reimbursed and money spent by the council on recreation. “To date, about $30,000 of reimburse-
ments have gone out. The budget was $215,000 to pay Trail for the deal. We are a long ways from reaching that amount of money yet.” Infrastructure was the next topic up for discussion, with Clarke asking candidates what their first priority would be when it came to fixing up Fruitvale. Candidate Mark Schmutz says he wants to see some senior's housing in the area. “A few years ago, we tried to get a low income senior's housing project and it hasn't happened, but I would like to see something like that start up again,” he said to the audience of voters. See CANDIDATES, Page 2
SHERI REGNIER PHOTO
Linda Radtke (left) and Linda Sullivan from the Trail Salvation Army food bank, display items that are part of the branch's newly launched Lunch Program. Every two weeks, a parent of school aged children can pick up a box of supplies, such as juice boxes, apples and lunch meat from the Rossland Avenue location. For information, contact the food bank at (250) 364.0445.
Village issues top concerns at Fruitvale forum BY LIZ BEVAN Times Staff
Fruitvale Memorial Hall echoed with questions about recreation, infrastructure and local business, posed to candidates vying for a seat around the councillor table. In the final forum before election day, the Tuesday night event presented the Fruitvale candidates a chance to explain why they were the best option for the job of helping to run the village. With no mayoral race it was just councillor candidates on the panel. Forum moderator, Ron Clarke, gathered questions from the over 50 attendees,
ELECT
FOR TRAIL COUNCIL
If elected I will strive to create more transparency with Council, improve our working relationship with local business people, respond to our citizens and rebuild harmony with our surrounding communities.
Contact the Times: Phone: FineLine250-368-8551 Technologies 62937 Index 9 Fax:JN250-368-8550 80% 1.5 BWR NU Newsroom: 250-364-1242 Canada Post, Contract number 42068012
Effective communication, good decision making and working with fairness, honesty and integrity are the qualities that I will bring to your council. Authorized by the Candidate Carol Dobie
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