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Work continues to reduce poverty across Canada

Chew on This volunteers handed out paper bags with a snack on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, on Monday.
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Rene Cam (left)and Elaine McMurray hand a Chew on This bag to Pam Kemp at Kelowna City Park Monday.

On our rainy Monday morning, several folks at Kelowna City Park were handed a paper bag with a snack inside and pamphlets about poverty and food insecurity in Canada.

It was part of a campaign organized by Canada Without Poverty and Citizens for Public Justice on Monday — International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

In Kelowna, volunteers Rene Cam and Elaine McMurray took to the City Park corner to hand out some 22,000 the bags ready to hand out across Canada.

Part of the  information inside was asking people "with lived experience of poverty to be included in the forthcoming national anti-poverty plan and for the plan to be rooted in human rights," the campaign said in a press release.

“We need to assure the rights of people living in poverty are respected and their voices are heard,” said Leilani Farha, executive director of Canada Without Poverty.

“In a country as wealthy as ours, there is no excuse. We urgently need an anti-poverty plan for Canada,” said Joe Gunn, executive director of Citizens for Public Justice. “It is simply wrong to allow 4.8 million Canadians to struggle to make ends meet.”

Launched in 2009, the Dignity for All model recommends six policy areas where the federal government can reduce poverty: Income security, housing and homelessness, food security, health, early childhood education and care, and jobs and employment.

To learn more visit Chew On This and  Dignity for All. Twitter #ChewOnThis on @DignityForAllCA.