Community Food Forum

As a result, of many cutbacks to our social programs and resources more and more food banks have been opened and are needed.   More than ever, our society is depending on volunteers, fundraising and donations.

The many people who live in poverty, are not always as obvious to us, as you may think.  There are many families who are struggling to feed their families and they may be our own neighbors.   In BC the number of people living in poverty is above the national average.  The groups affected most are the elderly, differently abled, single mothers, Indigenous people and racialized groups.

A study was put together 20 years ago to track child poverty in BC and to help decrease child poverty, unfortunately, the numbers have not changed.  1 in 5 children in this province still continue to live in poverty.  Not only that, many of our students, who are now young adults in post- secondary education also live in poverty.  The tuition costs and low wage jobs have caused many students to live in poverty.  Thus, students as a consequence forego proper nutrition and as a result their grades suffer, they are prone to depression and worse in some cases suicidal.

Protein for People Project was started in 2006 as an initiative by BC’s labour unions to help support families in need.  Protein for People work with local food banks and the community to connect families and individuals impacted by job loss, low wages, and limited incomes with resources they may need to lift them out of poverty.

Protein for People will also sponsor 10 community food forums a year.  This year, the West Kootenay Labour Council was able to host a community food forum.  We will be partnering with Selkirk College 10th St Campus.  The Chef and culinary students will volunteer to cook a salmon buffet with the salmon WKLC has bought.  They will demonstrate one or two meals for preparation and have some recipes available to take home.   Since there is an increase in student poverty the campus is very excited to join us with this forum.  

This will be an evening for families, a free salmon buffet and music. Various community resources have been invited to come and share their ideas and information.

This event will take place Oct. 18th, at Mary Hall, 10th St Campus, between 6 and 8 pm. Some of the Students of Trafalgar and Monica Markin  made little origami boxes with a little candy for each dinner placement

 

After the event the rest of the Salmon went to the food banks in the  Communities of  Castlegar, Nelson, Salmo and Trail.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Trail council gives failing grade to post-secondary cuts

 

By Val Rossi – Trail Daily Times
Published: April 05, 2012 4:00 PM

Pending cuts to Selkirk College programs has Trail concerned for future local post-secondary education.

The city has written to the school in hopes of having a discussion in the near future on what Trail councillor Robert Cacchioni calls a “self-defeating prophecy.”

Recently the B.C. government announced it was cutting its funding to post-secondary education by $70 million over the next three years, including over $1 million from Selkirk College.

Although the province claimed the money could be made up through administrative cuts, Selkirk administration announced March 5 that all of the second-year science courses, the entire engineering and philosophy programs, and the second years of the three two-year arts degrees offered at the Kootenay School of the Arts were being cut due to lack of funding.

“Here we’ve got an institution that has provided a great deal of service, especially its two-year programs has enabled a lot of parents to save as much as $30,000 by sending their kids here and it would seem that the ministry should be looking at some kind of geographical isolation concerns,” said Cacchioni.

“When we start losing programs here, we’re in a situation where there’s no options, you have to move out.”

Cacchioni fears that the loss of second-year courses will encourage students to apply to a school in a larger centre immediately to avoid the hassle of transferring after only one year.

“All that will do, in fact, will reduce the number of students in the programs and it will be very easy for administration and the board if they so choose to say, ‘Well we really don’t need any university-transfer programs anymore.’”