ASKING FOR MORE FOOD, by Maggie Hughes.
Hamilton round table on poverty tells City Hall what the special diet
allowance can do for them.

http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature6.cfm?REF=124

Dateline: Tuesday, February 21, 2006

by Maggie Hughes

The Hamilton Round Table on Poverty spent almost five hours making a
presentation to City Hall on Friday, February 10th. The whole morning's
worth of words were summed up pretty succinctly by three speakers that
"presented a face" of poverty.

Gloria Wade is a mom who became an advocate after losing her son to
multiple illnesses. She saw firsthand how much was wrong with our Social
Services. She saw firsthand how the disabled don't have a voice. And she
knows from personal experience that the income levels for those on Ontario
Disability are so woefully under the poverty line that they actually cause
more poverty and illness. She was speaking on the behalf of Dr. Sue Grafe,
a Health Provider Against Poverty, from Hamilton's North End Clinic, which
is in one of the harder hit areas of the city.

   Program revisions mean that one patient will not be eligible for the
Special Diet that would prevent osteoporosis until it has taken over her
body.

Dr. Grafe took us through a morning of appointments. All the patients were
suffering from lack of a proper diet and were destined to become
considerably worse due to the cuts in the Special Diet program. Dr. Grafe
talked about how the changes would lead to one of her elderly patients
succumbing to osteoporosis because she couldn't sustain the calcium and
vitamin diet supplements that the Special Diet funds allowed her the year
before. The changes in the program would mean that this patient will have
to wait until osteoporosis has taken over her body before any extra diet
supplement would be allowed.

Last year, Dr. Grafe could have prescribed a "diabetic diet" to help her
patients suffering from the disease, from heart failure or the loss of
limbs. This year, because of the revisions, $40 dollars a month will have
to do.

Then there is her patient suffering from HIV, who will not be eligible for
any supplementary income, unless she discloses her health condition to her
social worker. The patient stated that, "her privacy and dignity are worth
more than the money — she'll do without."
Dr. Grafe listed her patients' health conditions: diabetes to liver
disease, cancer, HIV and gastrointestinal disorders. None of these ailments
is covered sufficiently or at all, under the changes to the Diet
Supplement. Her patients will suffer, because OCAP dared encourage the poor
on basic welfare to apply for the special diet allowance so they could have
a little more food.

But what about those on Ontario Works — basic welfare? Their income was
slashed 22 percent by the Harris Tories in 1995, more than ten years ago,
and nothing has really changed to help them take back their lives since.

Janet Chafe is a child protection worker, new to the world of abused
children and poverty. She got more of an education than she bargained for
when she took on her new job. She recounted her first visit to a family
with multiple problems. The parents were on Social Services, the father too
sick to work, the mother overwhelmed with the daily struggles of dire
poverty and four children.

Ms. Chafe went on to explain that she had heard about poverty, she had
studied poverty — but it wasn't until she walked into poverty that she
fully realized how devastating it was, calling it a revelation.

"Poverty is an experience, you don't talk about it — you live it."

All of the children, except one, were damaged by their poverty. As Ms.
Chafe spoke of what she witnessed during a home visit, I suddenly saw
flashes of the very children she was talking about. Maybe not those exact
children, but the description of squalor, hopelessness and depravation were
not new to me.

I grew up seeing it in my neighbourhood. When Chafe said that the mother
just gave up and ignored her last born daughter, I understood why. Chafe
told it like it is.

"Poverty is abuse by doctors, and teachers, social workers, bureaucrats and
the justice system," she said. "You don't see many of the rich in the court
house."

But, the speaker that talked about my life, and the lives of all those
people I have been speaking to for the past sixteen years, was Valerie
Sturrock.

Suffering from medical ignorance concerning her ability to learn, Sturrock
has spent a lifetime struggling just to survive. The real face of poverty
is ignorance. There is nothing wrong with this woman's ability to express
herself and to clearly explain the suffering that many in the gallery were
feeling. Her point of concern was the coming cuts to the Special Diet and
how much devastation that policy would bring not only to her life, but to
many lives of the disabled.

Her condition is not on the "revised list" for the Special Diet needs. Nor
are many other health conditions. Even when she was explaining to a hushed
and packed City Hall, about how she was forced to live in a bug infested
city housing complex, she counted herself among the lucky ones for having
access to subsidized housing.

She spoke clearly and openly about what her life has been, and continues to
be, and at the same time asked city staff to pass around a letter from her
friend "Zoe" (the name ironically means "Life") who she worries will lose
all access to the Special Diet funds and fall further into the pit of
poverty and worsening health.

Her requests were simple, honest and well stated as she turned to face the
movers and the shakers in the room to tell them how they must help. In the
mass of confusion displayed in several of the comments delivered by those
in a position to decide what should be done next to deal with Hamilton's
incredible numbers of poverty, Sturrock made it clear and simple.

She asked that the legislation changes be suspended until a more productive
and helpful procedure could be found to make the changes the provincial
Liberals feel they must do.

She talked specifically about how a decent diet helped her health
condition, and how alternative medicine and visits to a naturopath helped
her pull herself out of being diagnosed as "incompetent" — her life being
decided by others as she was considered no longer able to think for
herself.

"I am a walking and talking miracle," she stated strongly. She traced her
route, from being in a mental institution last September — "driven there by
the bed bugs and the incessant invasion of her home by fumigators,
constantly spraying toxic poisons around her apartment — to being able to
stand here today and speak to city council."

She was angry at the years of abuse and vowed to refuse to put up with
conditions that would no longer allow her to eat!

"I'm always in double binds," said Sturrock. "There's conflicting
legislation everywhere I turn. I'm more than ready willing and able — given
the right opportunity — to work for that extra $160 we are allowed to make
before our income is reduced. But if we are not allowed to eat — how do we
get up from down?"

Maggie Hughes is the Hamilton-based producer and host of The Other Side,
which airs every Tuesday at 12:30 PM on CFMU 93.3 FM.