Thank The Mission. Give Them $5: PATTON

I hope people will do more than send The Mission $5. I’d like them to do two things actually. Please do send The Mission not necessarily $5 but whatever you can comfortably afford. Then ask some tough questions to yourself, the mayor, the “system” and those responsible in any way for WHY there are 16,500 people in our very well-off community who have to turn to The Mission for their Thanksgiving meal and, in many cases, for their daily meals. As Mike points out, The Mission is just one of an unfortunately large number of community services that provides food to our neighbours on Thanksgiving and throughout the year.

There is no justification for the level of poverty and, in some cases, destitution in a city with the resources that exist in Ottawa. Yes, these folks got a decent meal on Thanksgiving and will hopefully get another at Christmas. But there are 1,095 meals in a year. What are you doing to ensure that people are able to eat nutritious meals for the other 1,093 meals? And to ensure that they can access safe and affordable housing every night of the year?

Many of the people in our community who are food insecure are children, seniors and the disabled who have few options to generate the income they need to meet their needs. You may feel good that you donated money or food to help provide them with one nutritious meal but do you feel equally good that they are in need of that donated meal in the first place?

This community needs to do a lot more to ensure that our fellow residents are fed and sheltered decently. We have the ability to do it.

If only if we had the will to do it.