Peter’s Story: “People need a voice”
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Peter was working as a Registered Practical Nurse, primarily in geriatric care, when he began to lose his sight as a complication of diabetes.
Soon, he was completely blind and unable to continue working in a career he loved.
With significant barriers to employment, Peter applied for the Ontario Disability Support Program. His partner and son are also on ODSP, and month to month Peter says, it leaves them just scraping by.
“About half of our income goes to paying our rent,” Peter says. “There are no frills living on ODSP. I can’t remember the last time we went to see a movie. I can’t remember the last time we went to do anything that wasn’t completely free.
“You learn to clip coupons, anything to stretch a buck. If you work, you can pick up a shift or work overtime but on ODSP, that’s it.”
Peter is not alone. A single individual on ODSP can receive a maximum of $1,408 per month, leaving them trapped below Toronto’s deep poverty line of $1,833. At North York Harvest Food Bank, 1 in 3 clients is living with a disability.
“I didn’t realize how isolating and very limiting being on ODSP would be,” Peter says. “And blindness really does cut you off from people in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine.”
It was at our Oriole Community Food Space where Peter first learned about the Community Advocacy Group — and signed up right away.
From shared experience to collective voice
Emergency food support is a vital part of the work we do every day. Coming through our doors can mean the difference between someone eating that day, or not; having enough money for rent, or not. This work makes an immediate short-term impact for 30,000 client visits every single month — but it will never solve food insecurity.
That’s why North York Harvest’s advocacy strategy brings people most impacted by poverty together to fight for real change, so no one needs to turn to a food bank in the first place.
Through our Community Advocacy Group and NOTICE campaign, Peter is making sure the realities of living on ODSP are heard by elected officials.
Peter sits on the group’s Steering Committee, which helps co-plan North York Harvest’s advocacy strategy including rallies, petitions, deputations, and more, to put the drivers of hunger and unaffordability on NOTICE.
“People who are experiencing poverty and food insecurity are the ones who are experts in that, and they can speak to it in a way that we absolutely never could,” says Sarah Watson, Director of Community Engagement at North York Harvest.
“We want to create platforms and opportunities so that people have chances — that they might not have otherwise — to be seen and heard in their own words.”
Earlier this year, members of the committee co-organized a rally on the day Toronto City Council was voting on the budget, which brought over 100 clients to City Hall to fight for a fairer city for all. Afterwards, our community was invited to Mayor Olivia Chow’s office to speak directly about the budget.
“People need a voice,” Peter says. “Advocating for people who need help is something I need to do, because some people have had societal and generational hardship inflicted upon them.
“We deserve stable housing and we deserve fair treatment. I didn’t ask to be blind, I didn’t ask to be on ODSP — but here I am. What is our government for, if not to help us?”
Do you agree that hunger and poverty in our city have gone unnoticed and underfunded for too long? Join NOTICE and fight for a city for all of us!
food,” Joyce says.
“This is the power of advocacy and community,” says Ryan Noble, Executive Director of North York Harvest Food Bank. “When we come together and fight for our community, we win. When we join our voices together and put pressure on the government to notice, it can work.