fyi...part of an-going series called 'Fit City" at
http://www.therecord.com/
that has until now, focussed on diet, exercise and smoking as the primary
solutions to a healthy population...

Michael ([log in to unmask])

 Poverty, poor diets factor into obesity, diseases
 The Record p. B3

 FRANK ETHERINGTON

 WATERLOO REGION (Jan 27, 2004)

 Poverty that forces hundreds of families to survive on emergency food
 supplies is creating a generation of unhealthy, overweight children, the
 co-ordinator of Waterloo Region's largest food-hamper program has warned.

 Michael Parkinson said yesterday the House of Friendship's emergency
 food-hamper program helped feed about 18,000 different people in 2003.

 He said about 6,000 of that number were children under the age of 12
 living in low-income families, and about 600 are children under four.

 "If federal and provincial governments are serious about improving the
 lifestyle of poor children, the time is now," Parkinson said.

 "Inaction will lead to a generation of children who, because of their
 diet, have difficulty learning in school and are at risk of obesity,
 diabetes and cardio diseases."

 His concern is not with the contents of each hamper, but the diet of
 low-income people when they can't get food from the food bank.

 Parkinson said food programs organized by overworked, inadequately
 financed volunteer agencies "are a Band-Aid solution to a systematic
 problem that needs to be solved at provincial and federal levels."

 He said it's likely there will always be crisis times in the lives of
 families that will make emergency-food services necessary. But the need
 for such programs could be reduced if changes were made to minimum-wage
 levels and social-assistance programs.

 Statistics about hamper programs show that about 20 per cent of those
 receiving emergency food come from working-poor families, where incomes
 are too low to cover basic living costs.

 Government would get the best value by developing programs that increase
 wage levels for the poor, Parkinson said. Many studies have established a
 strong connection between low incomes, poor health, high levels of stress
 and low-quality diet.

 Parkinson's agency distributed 26,981 food hampers in 2003, the second
 highest total since the emergency program began in 1958, when 156 boxes of
 produce were provided.

 The total increased from 25,421 in 2002. The highest number of hampers --
 28,435 -- were distributed in 1993.

 A hamper is meant to provide enough food to last from three to five days
 and, though the regulation is often ignored, a family or individual is not
 supposed to receive more than six a year.

 Parkinson said the 300 volunteers who ran the program last year noticed
 that the depth of poverty and demand for other support services had
 increased in many households.

 The increase was caused by a growing number of jobs that paid low wages
 and had few benefits, Parkinson said.

 He said cuts to social-assistance programs and the inability of some
 immigrant and refugee families to find adequate employment also
 contributed to the problem.

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