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Welfare recipients are at high risk of obesity. That is because their diet is loaded with cheap carbohydrates.
They are also prone to high blood pressure. That is because there is so much salt in the canned foods and high-calorie snacks they eat.
They have a higher than normal incidence of diabetes (too much fat and sugar), anemia (too little iron), osteoporosis (too little calcium), and a host of other chronic diseases.
"When people don't have enough money to buy healthy food, they get sick," says Toronto's medical officer of health, David McKeown. "It's that simple."
Last week, McKeown joined anti-poverty activists, community workers and public health officials in a province-wide appeal to the Ontario government to provide a $100 healthy food supplement to all adults on welfare.
This would allow most welfare recipients to meet their minimum nutritional needs. In Toronto, according to the department of public health, a man needs $41 a week for a healthy diet, a woman needs $30 and children need up to $33, depending on their age and sex.
These amounts are out of reach on welfare. They'd still be a stretch with the proposed food supplement, but there'd be enough money for some fruits, vegetables, milk and meat or a high-protein substitute.
They'd be able to shop at a grocery store, rather than going to a food bank. They'd have more energy and resilience. The province would save on health-care costs.
If Premier Dalton McGuinty is sincere in his commitment to reduce poverty by 25 per cent within five years, tackling hunger in next month's budget would be a good start.
