NDP Leader Howard Hampton says working families are struggling to stay above the poverty line and are increasingly turning to food banks under the McGuinty Liberals – more than any other province in Canada.

“Ontario is a wealthy province, yet we have more people using food banks than any other province in Canada – over 330,000 people. Seventeen per cent of food bank users work for a living, but their wages are so low they can’t put food on the table to feed their families. Twenty per cent of food bank users are disabled. Forty per cent of food bank users are children – growing up without the nutrition they need to grow and prosper. Why is Ontario’s rate of food bank use the highest in the country?” Hampton asked the Premier during Question Period.

Today, a new Ontario Hunger Report released by the Ontario Association of Food Banks reveals the troubling trend that Ontario's children, Ontarians with disabilities, and working Ontarians are hardest hit by hunger.

Hampton said across Ontario, 136,000 families have been thrust into unemployment and despair after losing their manufacturing and forest sector jobs, and many turn to food banks.

“Under the McGuinty Liberals we are losing the battle against poverty. As more and more communities fall on hard economic times, hard working families are struggling to feed their children. It is unacceptable that someone can work full time – and work hard – and not be able to life their family out of poverty,” said Hampton.

New Democrats have called on the McGuinty Liberals to boost the fortunes of Ontario’s lowest-paid and hardest-working families by raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour and stop the clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement.