Carlyle Motor Products (CMP) has started an initiative that they hope will allow the upcoming Christmas holidays to be enjoyable for everyone including those who are unable to adequately put food on the table.
CMP began their Stuff the Sonic food drive on Nov. 4 and it will run until Dec 16th where the goal is to fill their Chevrolet Sonic with non perishable food items. Once the Sonic is full all the items will be donated to the Carlyle and District Food Bank. Amanda Peterson who works in the marketing department at CMP said the company wanted to do something special for the upcoming holidays.
"With the Christmas season coming along we just wanted to do a little something for the community just to give back and help people in need so we can get some food for the Christmas hampers," she said.
"To help out others around us and help out and do our part that way."
Peterson said CMP has been receiving steady donations from residents and she looks forward to next month to see how many goods they've accumulated.
"It's been going good, we've got quite a bit in the Sonic itself right now, it's coming along and we've got staff members bringing in food items," she said.
"Carlyle Motor Products kicked it off and donated some food items as well."
This drive by CMP has brought to light a Canadian issue that is at times not addressed often enough. That is hunger; many Canadians find it difficult to buy food and often struggle between paying rent and other bills.
According to the Canadian Food Bank's Hunger Count 2013 report 833,098 people turned to a food bank in March 2013. However, numbers were down in comparison to March of 2012 numbers of 872,379. The report also detailed that food bank use remains higher than it was before the recession began in 2008. It highlighted the fact that during the economic recovery too many Canadians were still struggling to provide themselves and their families with food.
In recognition of this, Food Bank Canada has issued five recommendations in their report to solve this complex and silent problem.
1. Commit to adequate, long-term federal funding of affordable housing in Canada, so that people are not forced to choose between paying rent or buying food.
2. Increase social investment in northern Canada to address the stunning levels of food insecurity in northern regions.
3. Increase federal support from $500 million to $700 million per year for existing programs funded under Labour Market Agreements, to help the most vulnerable Canadians get training to qualify for well-paying jobs.
4. Revolutionize social assistance so that people can build self-sufficiency instead of being trapped in poverty.
5. Increase federal and provincial support to help people working in low-paying, part-time, and temporary jobs attain better-paid, long-term employment.
