This is the first part of an article that appeared in today's edition of the Winnipeg Free Press
Manitobans hungry for meatier food allowance
If you only had $3.96 a day to spend on groceries, what would you buy?
That’s a question Laura Shields deals with every day. Laura is a 61-year-old woman who grew up in Winnipeg’s North End. From the age of 17 she worked in a number of factories on an assembly line. Later, she worked for the post office. Because of a slipped disc and twisted pelvis, Laura is unable to work. Her husband Lyle used to work selling the Winnipeg Free Press, but the paper stand at Hargrave Street and Portage Avenue closed down. With only a Grade 6 education, Lyle has been unable to find a stable job. Their stories have been used with permission.
Laura and Lyle are not the only Manitobans who have to deal with the question of what to buy with $3.96 a day; it is a predicament faced by thousands.
If you are on disability allowance or on general employment and income assistance, you receive $3.96 per day as a food allowance. You have no vehicle, no bus pass and you have to shop at the nearest corner store where prices are higher. What you buy is never enough to feed you, so you must go to soup kitchens and food banks to survive. This means spending hours standing in line and having to choose food you may not like or don’t know how to use.
Later this year we will see how well we can eat on the food allowance given to citizens on social assistance.
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