Poor kids left behind

A coalition of 95 B.C. groups says the provincial government is failing to help its youngest and poorest citizens.

First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition says one in five children in this province live in poverty, topping the national child poverty rate of 19 per cent.

The numbers are from 2013 statistics, the most recent data available, and the coalition says just over half of all B.C. youngsters in poverty live in Metro Vancouver.

“I would say that any child that is in poverty is a crisis,” said Ami Catriona, director of community relations at the Central Okanagan Food Bank. “It is a disturbing trend, families that we’re helping, probably about 30, 32 per cent of families are with kids under the age of 15. It’s a lot of kids.”

Catriona said proper nutrition at a young age is vital for growing up healthy and for proper learning.

“When you’re sitting in school and you’re trying to learn, but you’re hungry, how do you focus?” she said. “Not only how do you focus, but your brain power is not turned on, or you’re sleepy.”

Children from single-parent families are at risk, with the coalition's 2015 B.C. Child Poverty Report Card showing 50.3 per cent of children from those families live in poverty, compared to 13 per cent from two-parent families.

Coalition chairwoman Cheryl Mixon says the child poverty crisis reaches into every corner of the province, and the group demands B.C. develop a comprehensive poverty reduction plan, complete with targets and timelines.

The report card makes 21 recommendations to help reduce the child poverty rate to seven per cent or less by 2020 — including raising the minimum wage and welfare rates and adopting a $10 per day childcare plan.

“When you and I get hungry, we can go to the coffee shop, we can grab a coffee, we can grab a muffin. But, there are families where there’s literally nothing in the cupboards,” Catriona said. “It’s heartbreaking when you think of a parent who doesn’t have anything to give their kids.”

– with files from The Canadian Press

Photo: The Canadian Press