Skip to content

KDLC donates canned salmon to the Barriere Food Bank

The Kamloops and District Labour Council is delivering 70 cases of canned salmon to food banks
2276barriereSalmonforfoodbank
Representatives of the Kamloops and District Labour Council (centre) recently delivered 10 cases of canned salmon to the Barriere and District Food Bank.

The Kamloops and District Labour Council is delivering 70 cases of canned salmon to food banks in Kamloops, Barriere, Clearwater, Chase and Merritt.

This year the KDLC joins a labour movement initiative called Protein for People, a union operated charity which recognizes the immediate need to address shortages of high nutrient food at BC food banks.

“It’s very unfortunate that people in communities right across Canada need to rely on food banks in order to survive. In a country as wealthy as ours, hunger shouldn’t be an issue for anyone,” says KDLC President, Barb Nederpel.

“Canadian governments at all levels, have absolved themselves of their legal responsibility to protect the less fortunate from hunger,” says Nederpel. “Charities like the food banks give the false sense that the issue is being addressed, allowing governments to look the other way.”

BC has the highest poverty rate in the country and is one of the last two remaining provinces without a poverty reduction plan. Higher poverty rates leads to higher health-care costs, increased policing and crime costs, lost productivity and lost economic activity.

“We can’t just stand idly by watching unemployed, underemployed and under-funded families go hungry while we wait for better public policy to be enacted.”

The first Canadian food bank was established in Edmonton, Alberta in 1981 and was supposed to be a temporary measure. However, the need for food banks has continued to grow over the years to the point where there are approximately 800 food banks in Canada now.

“I want to be clear though, Food Banks are a band aid, not the cure, to hunger in Canada.”