Draw the line on hunger

Dear Editor

In a country as affluent as Canada, hunger is unacceptable. Yet, more than 850,000 Canadians will visit a food bank for assistance this month alone. Of those, 36 per cent are children or youth. We are working to change the statistics on hunger with Hunger Awareness Week.

Here in the Battlefords, the rise in need is represented by an increase of 29 per cent last month (compared to August 2015) in those turning to us for support, with more than 2,300 individuals in our community coming to Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre for assistance in August 2016.

But we can change this.

During Hunger Awareness Week, Sept. 19-23, we are drawing the line on hunger and we encourage Canadians to engage.

We hope people will participate by going to www.hungerawarenessweek.ca and sharing how they would draw the line on hunger in 2016. We can work to make a difference for the individuals in the Battlefords and surrounding area who turn to our food bank for support each month. By learning about hunger, we can all change the way we think about hunger and activate the changes needed to reduce it.

We encourage everyone to take part. Visit hungerawarenessweek.ca for more information. You won’t regret it.

Erin Katerynych

Executive Director