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From: Elaine Power <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 5, 2022 10:15 AM
To: Dennis Raphael
Cc: sdoh; The Politics of Health Group mailing list; hlth-list; [log in to unmask]; Rick Salutin; Valerie Tarasuk; Timmie Li
Subject: Re: The Food Bank Industrial Complex

Congratulations Dennis!

One of the great things about this podcast episode is hearing Dennis’ voice and his outrage in talking about Walmart and Loblaws. Highly recommended - though you do have to suffer through Jesse Brown’s crowdfunding pitch. You also get to hear Dr. Valerie Tarasuk’s outrage.

Mostly the reporter, Cherise Seucharan, does a good job, though the conflation of “social assistance” with disability benefits (Ontario Disability Support Program in Ontario), ignoring the even more inadequate levels of social assistance for hypothetically “employable” people (Ontario Works in Ontario), is deeply problematic. And the implicit praise for “food stamps” (SNAP) in the US is misguided.

But overall, it is so great to have this podcast during the “Sounds of the Season” and "non-stop food bank drives" time of year.

“Food banks aren’t wrong,” Cherise says. “But the problem is that if you’re at the point of needing one, so many other things have failed where they should have succeeded. We have so many opportunities to create policy to prevent people from being food insecure that we simply haven’t.”

Like many charities, food banks attempt to fill in a gap being left by the state. In this case, that gap is people’s ability to obtain basic sustenance.


On Dec 5, 2022, at 8:31 AM, Dennis Raphael <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

https://play.acast.com/s/630ceae33fe37400122828c6/638d1d2aa594500011b4a3a5

Every food bank is a policy failure. And Canada is weird in venerating them.

https://www.canadaland.com/every-food-bank-is-a-policy-failure/

In 2016, Food Banks Canada — which, as its name suggests, is the national body representing Canada’s food banks — presented an Award of Excellence to Walmart Canada. The famously low-paying, anti-union retail giant was honoured not for generating clients but for its “extensive philanthropy program.”

“Recognizing the serious issue of food insecurity in Canada, Walmart Canada is committed to providing ongoing and predictable resources to Food Banks Canada,” the charity wrote in a citation.

In 2013, they named Walmart their Innovator of the Year, and in 2018 their Donor of the Year. By the time of the latter, a Walmart VP had a spot on the nonprofit’s board; by 2021, he was its chair. A similar national group in the U.S. sports a former Walmart exec as its CEO.

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