Where Are Our Senior Leves Of Government In Addressing The Growing Wealth Gap And In Making The Cost Of Living More Affordable For People In This Country?
A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted August 6, 2024
Thorold City Councillors Henry D’Angela (left) and Carmen DeRose stand at the back on a now-empty transport truck following a grocery food giveaway this past Saturday, all paid for by an anonymous donor in the community.
A Thorold area businessman known to many only as “the anonymous donor” has done it again.
For the fifth time in the Thorold, Niagara area this year alone, an individual who chooses to remain unknown for his charitable acts, has reached into his own pocket to cover the cost of a grocery food drive for area residents who find themselves struggling to get by.
This past Saturday (August 3rd) turned out be the biggest food giveaway of its kind yet, Carmen DeRose, a Thorold City Councillor who has volunteered his time distributing the food on the frontlines.
Somewhere between about 400 and 500 cars lined up for blocks with people waiting to enter a the Holy Rosary Hall parking lot off Sullivan Avenue where the food was being distributed, DeRose told Niagara At Large as this past Saturday’s food drive drew to a close.
All in all, he said, a total of about 40,000 pounds of food was given away.
It is “sad” to see so much need in the community, said DeRose and fellow Thorold Councillor Henry D’Angela who was also volunteering time on the distribution line.
Tony Scalzi, a representative of the Thorold branch of Knights of Columbus, an organization that was also played a big role , as it has in the past, in helping distribute the food, said he and his members were “shocked” at the size of the turnout for the food.
“It just keeps growing,” Scalzi said.
A few things came immediately to mind for this Niagara resident and veteran journalist in the region.
First, I could not help but be moved by the generosity of those who volunteered their time on a holiday weekend to distribute the food, and the continued generosity of someone in the Thorold area who has made this and past food giveaways possible with their own money.
This anonymous donor, by the way, has also reportedly donated more than $40,000 to Niagara Nutrition Partners to see that children in need in the Thorold area being their school day with a decent breakfast.
Second, what a sad comment it is that the need for food at events like this, and at Food Banks, across Niagara and other regions of the country is soaring in an otherwise affluent country like Canada.
Obviously something is seriously wrong with the distribution of living and the cost of living in this province and country that our senior levels of government are failing to do enough to address.
We’ve heard a lot from governments in recent years about addressing the growing gap between the wealthy and the rest of us, about making wages more livable, and about making the cost of housing, food and other necessities more affordable, but where is the action?
They may say they are taking action but the growing lineups at Food Banks and at grocery giveaways like the one in Thorold, and the growing amount of homelessness clearly shows that they are failing to do enough.
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