Good afternoon, everyone. I want to say thank you for having us here today.
I work for the Volunteer Centre of Charlotte County. We have two staff at our agency. Our in-kind service that we put out consistently over the year is over half a million dollars worth of free, tangible services. That means if you're sitting in our parking lot, you would see these services come out through our doors.
I've been in that place of employment for 17 years. Previous to that I worked with people with disabilities in two different settings. I'm very blessed to say I haven't missed a week of work in 27 years due to my own illness, so I'm a very lucky person.
At the Volunteer Centre of Charlotte County, the main ministry on a daily basis is a food bank. We also run the Red Cross loans program, as well as about five other programs that help people living in poverty. I've come to the conclusion, quite recently, that...I know many people think of poverty as something that happens to other people, that it's something best ignored lest it be caught—as if it were some disease—and that it must be avoided all costs. What is forgotten is that we are all only a step away from being in poverty, from finding ourselves barely able to survive with some sort of shelter, food to eat on a daily basis, and medical care. If you think of prescriptions without insurance, that's quite costly for many New Brunswickers.
Many think poverty is something that has happened to people who were careless, who didn't care about themselves or their families, and who just leech off the system. Public awareness needs to be created surrounding how those in poverty do care about themselves and their families, and how giving they are, and to what extent they will go to do the best they can. I can testify to that on a daily basis.
The word has to be gotten out that organizations that help those in need can't do it alone. They don't have the resources to help everyone who is in need, but they do the best they can to help who they can. If poverty were made to be seen as something that isn't a stigma, that isn't an illness that needs to be avoided and/or ignored, but is an event that requires help to be overcome, then maybe we'd come one step closer to making things easier for those who are in poverty.
One fact that was stated recently by a public health nurse in the school system is that 27% of children are not prepared for school each day, and this is across the board. If you look at the facts, and this would be out of the hunger count from Food Banks Canada, you'll see that 33.2% of food bank recipients are children. So we could have a match there.
At my organization over the years, and this was just out of desperation.... How do you maintain between 5,000 and 10,000 pounds of food a month that needs to be distributed to 274 different families 300 times? What I'm saying is that 300 times in the run of a month, my one staff member and I feed families, and we feed them between a two-day and five-day period. About 40% of those families return; about 20% of those families come back more than once a month, sometimes four times a month; and about 15% of those families don't come every month, but they may come on a six-month basis.
We're a volunteer centre and we capitalize on volunteerism. We have 34 volunteers who give more than 600 hours monthly. Our greatest group of volunteers happen to be young people between the ages of 7 and 14. We're entering into our third year of employing these young volunteers, and they basically are learning skills. Yesterday there was no school in the province. I had nine kids show up by 8:30 in the morning, and that surpassed my amazement, because I have two children who probably wouldn't get up at 8:30 in the morning and get to the centre. We provided transportation for four of them and the others got there on their own.
Here are my recommendations. Fund volunteer-based organizations like food banks, rural transportation initiatives, and emergency shelters with core funding, so they can adequately feed, clothe, and connect those people.
Look at payments made through income assistance. Provide cost-effective education for those in poverty. I have a daughter who's paying $300 a month in interest charges, so I'm well aware of that. Make the EI system more accessible with less wait time, absolutely. Permit these families to access emergency funds without clawbacks. If you have to go to get emergency rent, you're poor for the next six months.
Make a plan for those who choose leisure over work. There's a lot of validity in that. I know a lot who are more complacent to stay at home than go to work, and I can tell you some of the reasons why—and I understand that. Have somewhere for people to go who need to just talk to someone. Being poor is a huge strain or stress for people who find themselves having to ask for help for the first time in their lives, and I think we're going to see an increased number of Canadians facing those doors in the months to come.
Stimulate real awareness of poverty within the greater community and the business sector by depicting the real plight of more than 100,000 New Brunswickers living in poverty—that's Shawn Graham's number.
I would like to see a relaunching of a thing called the Poverty Game.
Thank you.