Today is national hunger awareness day, a day we hear the statistics of those who go hungry, but statistics don’t tell the story – real lives do.
Pregnant mothers who don’t have enough to eat are less healthy, are more likely to give birth prematurely, and have kids who are less healthy and less strong.
And less healthy, less strong kids don’t develop as quickly or as well. It’s as if this is a 100 metre race and the healthier kids begin at the start line, while these kids begin 10 metres behind. To them in their world, other kids, somehow, always seem better and smarter. They are always ahead. And kids with less to eat are sick more often, they miss more school, they fall further behind. This is not fair. This is not Canada.
Today, as we think about hunger and its effect on our fellow Canadians, I hope we will also reflect on how as governments – on poverty and hunger – none of us has done very well, and for all of us this remains work undone.
