MS. BROCCOLI SAYS ABYSMAL WELFARE RATES, HUNGER AND POOR NUTRITION GO TOGETHER

Dec 8, 2006 Over the holiday season, the public is always very generous in giving to food banks. In this time of crisis, when over 80,000 people visited food banks in BC in March alone, one third of those children, these are much needed donations.

But Ms. Broccoli urges people to go one step further this year to ensure that people in poverty have enough food to eat all year round. Welfare rates have dropped to their lowest level since the 1980s, leaving people on welfare only $6 a day to cover all living costs except rent. A person working a full-time minimum wage job will still be below the poverty line.

To ensure people in poverty have enough food to eat all year round, please write to Premier Gordon Campbell and ask him to:

• raise the welfare rates by 50% and index them to inflation
  
• end the barriers to getting on income assistance so people
  in need will not become homeless
  
• raise minimum wage to at least $10/hour and end the
  $6/hour training wage

Pressuring the government does make a difference - policy changes caused many of these problems and policy changes can help create a more fair society.

Writing a letter in your own words is the most effective way of getting the government's attention, but for your convenience we have also written a standard letter addressing these issues.

For more information, see today's press release.

To spread the word in your community, pick up some band-aid postcards from Jean Swanson at 604-729-2380 or download them here.