Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I offer tremendous thanks to the witnesses today for coming and giving your time the way you have and for all of your advocacy before today. I know it's gone on for a very long time. I'm very grateful for it.
Mr. Hunter, you brought the important voice of women into our committee today. They had contacted you with regard to the study of women experiencing sexual assault in the military. It's really important that we all understand, and that the women you've been in contact with understand, that the government has not shut down that study. It's moved it to a much more appropriate venue—the status of women committee—where these women are sure, in that venue, to have a safe and effective hearing of the trouble they've encountered, which they never should have encountered. The last thing we want to be doing is taking hope away from people who need hope, when it's not necessary that this hope be taken away. This study is going to continue, but at the right committee. I just wanted to make sure we all understood that.
There was one other point about the wait times. I'm not sure who raised it. Of course, this committee doesn't study successes. It studies what we need to do better. That's why we're all here and that's why you're here. However, it's important to understand that from 2020 to 2021, VAC took 390,000 calls and 84% of those calls met the two-minute service standard. We're not here studying the 84% that were met. We're studying the 16% that weren't met. Thank you, then, for raising those points.
In fact, there was a 93% approval rate of people making those calls. We're here to study the 7% who were not satisfied. Again, thank you for that.
It's important, though, that it does show a record of improvement year over year.
That's not what I really wanted to ask you about, though. Mr. Hunter, I want to shift gears. You are involved with the Veterans Association Food Bank in Alberta. Obviously, access to nutritious food has a clear impact on our physical and mental health. When any of us aren't sure where our next meal is coming or what its quality will be, it's a very difficult situation.
I was just wondering if you would be able to share a little bit about your experience of how the food bank has made a difference to the physical, mental and emotional well-being of veterans in your community.