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MADE HERE FOOD
DISCUSSING FOOD INSECURITY AND POVERTY IN REVELSTOKE Story and photos by Bailey Gingras-Hamilton.
BEYOND THE FOOD BANK walking downtown on a friday afternoon, people stream into cafes and restaurants with packed patios and full tables. Nearby, the sound of items scanning echoes through a grocery store. Further down Second Street, just outside the busy core of Revelstoke, a line-up forms at the Community Connections outreach building. A team of dedicated volunteers prepare the food bank for the next two hours of distribution. Bread, milk, produce, canned goods; all are counted and ready to go. For those facing food insecurity, this team is a lifeline. Data collected by Community Connections reveals that the food bank saw three times as many visitors in April 2020 compared to March 2020. From May to October of 2020, the food bank averaged 1,833 visits per month. Fast forward to May 2021, the food bank had 1,108 visits, with 162 households registered for the program. Although the numbers have decreased since last year, they are still above pre-pandemic numbers. This reflects an influx of poverty in Revelstoke, both systemic and situational.
The widening divide between the rich and the poor As explained by Erin Maclachlan, Community Outreach and Development co-director at Community Connections, situational poverty is different from systemic and generational poverty. “When you think of generational poverty or systemic poverty, those are scenarios that are long lasting and really difficult to break out of. Situational poverty often comes around major changes in your life or events that happen that are beyond your control,” Maclachlan explains. As predicted by the definition, the pandemic has driven rates of situational poverty upwards. Maclachlan notices a blend of situational and systemic poverty in Revelstoke, with overall poverty rates increasing. “A lot of people talk about how it doesn't seem like there's a lot of homeless people or people struggling in our community, but that's not the case,” says Hannah Whitney, Community Connections Food and Outreach coordinator. In a story that echoes across Canada, the pandemic has widened the gap between rich and poor. Statistics Canada reports that 46 per cent of Canadians with incomes under $40,000 said their income had worsened between the onset of the pandemic and October 2020, compared to 27 per cent of those with incomes over $40,000. “The pandemic has really pushed on a lot of cracks,” Maclachlan observes. “I see that in Revelstoke, there's a huge group of people that have a lot of money and buy lots of fancy houses and ski. And then there's a demographic that we serve that are really struggling and have nothing.”
