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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday February 27, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA ANCHOR Circ. Manager Going hungry in Halton For most Halton residents, having to choose between shelter and food is about as abstract a concept as living in a war zone. Still, having the means to eat well shouldn't blind us to the reality that some who live here can't afford enough to eat. A recently-released study by Halton's health department paints a startling picture of low-income residents being forced to choose between their basic nutritional needs and other necessities of life such as heat, hydro, transportation and clothing. Too often a healthy diet is being sacrificed in order to pay for adequate shelter. "These families are more likely to pay the rent and necessary bills and have little or no money left for food," said a report from Halton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Bob Nosal. "Clearly there is a disconnect between what the government provides in benefit rates and the actual cost of eating for good health." Cited in the report is the example of a Halton single mother receiving assistance through Ontario Works while raising a seven-year-old daughter. Their household income of $1281.55 per month is quickly gobbled up by rent of $869, leaving $412.55 to pay for everything else. According to Nosal, a nutritious diet for a two-person household would use up just under $250 of the monthly budget, leaving less than $164 to pay for utilities, transportation and clothing. Entitled, The Nutritious Food Basket, the survey also found the average weekly cost of providing a family of four with a healthy diet increased five per cent -- from $120.89 in 2006 to $127.08 in 2007. We agree it's time the province implemented its Poverty Reduction Strategy to help address the increasing gap between social benefits and the real cost of living even the most rudimentary life. At the local level, food banks struggle to keep shelves stocked while organizations like Halton Food For Thought work hard to develop innovative school nutrition programs such as The Healthy Basket, a pilot project that sees bins of healthy food placed in each classroom to help ensure young, developing minds have enough to eat. In a civilized, caring and just society no one -- especially not vulnerable children -- should have to make a choice between having a roof over their head or eating their next meal. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Communities deserve schools, not to be pitted against one other The people who cheered the Halton District School Board's Program and Accommodation Review (PARC) 14 Committee's vote on Tuesday, Feb. 19 were people who care about their local schools and, of course, care about their children. The 40-member committee represents the entire community, and after meeting regularly for the better part of a year, voted 27-13 in favour of not closing multiple schools in one end of the community so they could build a new one in the other. Make no mistake: Oakville's Clearview community should have a school. Sadly, poor urban planning and weak civic leadership over the past 20 years have now made this an incredibly expensive proposition. The only way out of this mess is for the HDSB to spend its way out (which would mean both building a new school, and renovating all existing ones), but this isn't going to happen. Instead, they pitted one section of southeast Oakville against the other, and let us fight it out. In the last few weeks, residents at all of the threatened schools have variously called their own local school the "beating heart" of their community. They started websites. They printed placards. Others bought ads and distributed flyers. It turns out people are passionate about their children, their smaller schools and the sense of community these schools provide. The community has been promised that this time the board's decision on these matters will be final. Let's see if today's crop of leaders has the fortitude to make a decision and stick to it. A decision informed by a wounded community. Either that, or find some extra money and build Clearview a smaller school -- the one that should have been built 20 years ago ­ but, please, not at the expense of our existing schools, which are long overdue for some basic renovations. JIM ALLAN The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-3401981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com