There are hard benefits to alleviating poverty.

The problem is that the methodologies that show these benefits tend not to be used in traditional budgeting.

1. We tend not to look at Direct and Indirect Savings

2. We seldom count the costs of Inaction (Cost of Poverty)

3. We almost never do Cost Benefit Analysis

Each of these different types of analyses offers a different way of looking at poverty reduction. By ignoring the offsets, savings and benefits that could be estimated using these methods, decision-makers otherwise miss out on the chance to understand the economic returns related to investment in poverty reduction efforts.

The creation of a broader balance sheet can refute the incorrect conclusion that poverty reduction only relates to those low-income residents who are directly impacted. Reducing poverty has positive impacts for all Torontonians.

Food insecurity is not just about nutrition. It is about hopelessness and despair. It leads to high stress levels, mental health problems, more frequent and serious health problems, poorer decision-making and the inability of children to concentrate at school. It is a vicious cycle that keeps people from realizing their potential, caring properly for their families and contributing to their communities.

Food banks, and the generosity of those who support them and volunteer at them, keep some food on the table.

But as a society, we need to figure out a system that doesn’t rely on welcome but highly variable charitable donations to keep all our citizens healthy, happy and well-fed.

A new federal government, with commitments to a national food policy and to a Canadian poverty-reduction plan, presents the opportunity for a new conversation about government accountability and public policy.

Key to this strategy is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s commitment, made following the cabinet swearing-in ceremony, to evidence-based policy-making. This is essential for thinking and acting outside the charitable food-aid box and for moving beyond the public perception that charity is an effective response to domestic hunger when evidence-based research tells otherwise.

Professor Valerie Tarasuk, Canada’s leading food insecurity expert, unequivocally states that "although there has been rigorous measurement of household food insecurity in Canada since 2005, the problem has not abated, it has grown.”

The challenge of food insecurity is one of the great issues of our time.

Canadian research indicates that 12 per cent of Canadians are food insecure, forced into hunger, poor-quality food or both. That’s four million Canadians and one of every six children.

In addition to the human tragedy of this, there are enormous societal costs. A study published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that food insecurity increased the cost of health-care services by 23 per cent among those only marginally food insecure, and by 121 per cent among the most food insecure in Canada.

Here are five things Canadians need to know about food insecurity:

1. Food insecurity significantly affects health

2. Household food insecurity is a strong predictor of healthcare utilization and costs

3. Food bank use is a poor indicator of food insecurity

4. An adequate and secure level of household income is strongly linked to food security

5. Relatively modest increases in income have been found to lessen food insecurity among low-income families

No disrespect to food banks, but while the army of volunteers and staff who support these institutions need to be commended for their big hearts and hard work, we need to recognise that charity alone will never solve the hunger crisis.

If we are promoting charity we must promote social justice. Yes, ask for donations, but use these "asks” as an opportunity to increase awareness of the root causes of hunger.

People go to the food bank because they don’t have enough money for food. Eliminate poverty and we can dispense with food drives and food banks. Everyone is happier, especially those who have no option but to turn to food banks for a meal.

I am your equal though I am poor; I am your equal though I am sick. Tossing a few bucks at the poverty pimps at Christmas will make you feel real good, but will not change anything. Your dollars feed the system which has failed us for decades and made us grovel for our survival.

I and my kind will still be poor, still be without decent housing, still without decent clothes, and still without decent food. It could be you and yours one day. Then you’ll see why we need structural change, not spare change.

After more than 30 years, we know that food banks are not the answer. It is time to reinvest in our social safety net. A Basic Income Guarantee (or Guaranteed Annual Income) to essential needs, including shelter and food, would mean that no one goes hungry in this immensely wealthy country. Then the food banks could close and finally declare an end to the emergency.

Food banks, it is claimed, are miracles of the human spirit and an inherently effective response to market needs — domestic hunger — while no government can get it right all the time.

Well, since 1981, when food banks reached Canada from the U.S., government has waited 35 years and done nothing. Instead, troubling food insecurity is left to food charity, with Canadian governments neglecting official data that hunger is primarily a problem of income poverty and failed income distribution.

Rather than a miracle, the hungry need a political champion.

A university professor in Nova Scotia says while turkey drives and food banks make the donors feel good — they don't fix a much larger problem of helping the poor.

"... I began to think, 'What is it that people really need who are poor?' They don't need socks, they don't need a few more bus tickets so they can go to a doctor's appointment," Haiven told On the Go host Ted Blades this week.

"It made me cringe, because leaving food for the food bank makes us middle-class people feel good. It's not to say the food banks don't need food — but where and when and how is it going end? We seldom think of that."

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist." -- Hélder Câmara, Brazilian Catholic Archbishop, 1909-1999

If Jesus came back to Earth on his birthday this Christmas, one of his first missions would be to close food banks -- all of them.

Not because they aren't vitally important in feeding the poor but because food banks are not a solution to poverty -- and never will be.

HungerCount is probably the most widely disseminated, frequently cited data produced in Canada in regards to the issue of hunger and food security in the country. Its numbers are high, and they should be jarring.

But those numbers are misleading...

"When you look at these reports, what they give you the impression of is that they're stats on the problem. They're not," Valerie Tarasuk, a researcher based out of the University of Toronto, told VICE.

"It's service utilization. If we were trying to look at the health of Canadians, would we look at the number of ambulances that drive by?" The issue, in other words, is right in the name: Food Banks Canada isn't actually counting the number of Canadians who are going hungry.

The conversation about food banks in Canada is dominated by the continued plea to give, give, give – especially now in the holiday season. The voices of people who go to food banks and of people who donate to food banks but who want governments to provide people with an income that puts food in their budget doesn’t get as much publicity... break the silence that Kathleen Wynne and her government feel gives them the power to ignore the crisis among people who are poor in Ontario.

We have received 300 surveys – and our goal is 500 surveys so far with 80 revealing comments.

"We asked our clients at the food bank, what needs to change in your life so that you do not need us any longer? What we heard from them was, 'I need affordable housing. Seventy per cent of my income is going to my rent, I need more money,'" she said.

"These people are trying to live on money that is just not enough, and they need affordable daycare."

Canadians have been duped into believing that we can keep hunger at bay by donating to our local food banks. We teach our children to give to those who are not as fortunate and have less than we do. But, after three decades it's time to implement sustainable solutions that will allow every Canadian to have financial and food security.

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