Low-income families hit by rising food and gas prices and an unexpected change in a provincial assistance policy found it an uphill task returning their children to school this fall, a charity organization said.
As a result, many resorted to assistance from Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa’s Tools 4 School program. Organizers said although the demand surpassed their stock piles, they did receive more donations than in previous years, and were able to supply to more children.
Tools 4 School relies on donations to gather supplies for children in Ottawa whose families cannot afford to buy them.
Emilie Hayes, the youth program manager at CAYFO, said backpacks are stuffed with supplies such as markers, calculators and geometry sets, and are distributed based on the requests received from different agencies across Ottawa.
Many organizations and community groups turned to the program for supplies this year.
Gabriela Huncikova is a counsellor at the Centretown Laundry Co-op, which provides low-cost laundry services for low-income Ottawa residents. She said she went to the Tools 4 School program this year after receiving a request from a local mother at the laundry co-op.
“One of the moms approached us and asked if we could get help from somewhere,” said Huncikova. “So we found Tools 4 School.”
Huncikova said she was able to pick up about 10 backpacks equipped with binders, paper, and pens.
She said these supplies are a big help for families with limited income.
“Even $40 is a big difference for them,” said Huncikova. “Just buying a backpack for $15 – $20 is a big thing.”
While the program began in 2000, there was an increased demand this year, in part because of changes made to social assistance policies.
The Ontario Child Benefit provides assistance for low-income families with children under 18, but this year, policy changes were made. These families will no longer receive the lump sum back-to-school allowance they had previously received.
Instead, that money will be included in monthly OCB payments. This means while families will receive the same amount annually, they will not get the lump sum in August to help cover the cost of school supplies and clothing for a new school year.
Barbara Carroll, co-ordinator of the Debra Dynes Family House, said families were not really aware of these changes until around July, meaning they did not have much time to prepare.
While the City of Ottawa did decide to grant a one-time payment for these families this year to help ease the burden, Carroll said the payments would not reach families until after children were already back in school.
“So families who may have needed this quite seriously and desperately for back-to-school have had a real struggle,” said Carroll.
The changes affected many single parents and low-income families using the Centretown Laundry Co-op, who were used to receiving the back-to-school allowance at the end of August, said Huncikova.
“They really needed supplies,” she said.
Hayes said CAYFO usually receives requests to supply to about 3,000 children per year, but because of the social assistance changes, along with rising food and gas prices, CAYFO has had over 4,000 requests this year.
Typically, the program has been able to supply to about 1,500 children per year. This year, however, Hayes said organizers were anticipating the increased demand and have been able to equip over 2,300 children with supplies.
For more information about Tools 4 School, visit www.cayfo.ca .