CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter was sent in response to a previously published article covering a presentation by Dr. Lisa Simon, who noted that more than 2,200 Simcoe County students are going to bed, and/or school hungry.
It should be no surprise to most residents of Collingwood and members of 100 Women Who Care South Georgian Bay that children go to bed hungry and families face food insecurity, as noted by Dr Lisa Simon, associate medical officer of health for the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit.
Since its inception in 2017, the members of 100 Women Who Care have put $500,000 into our community.
Food banks, community dinners, United Way Emergency Need Fund, Out of the Cold, backpack projects have all benefited from our quarterly donations of about $20,000 to charities that have pitched their cause to us regarding food insecurity.
Ours is a generous community but families need and deserve a living income.
The Ontario Basic Income Pilot Project in four communities was chopped after Premier Ford and our MPP Brian Saunderson were elected to office in 2018.
After coming through the pandemic, the situation is more dire.
I don't need a handout of a free licence plate renewal, I will gladly pay for the privilege of driving so that government funds can address the needs of families in Simcoe County.
Mr. Ford won't buy my vote with no-fee licensing or alcohol at my corner store.
Mary Jane McIntyre
Collingwood, Ont.
