25 in 5 Hamilton

Trying to eat on $7.50 a day

Posted on March 08 2010 under Poverty in the Media

Trying to eat on $7.50 a day

That's all OSAP allots for student food

Louise Brown
Torstar News Service

March 8, 2010

It’s not just about missing her Starbucks London Fog tea – although at $4.50 a cup, half her new budget would be used up.

Nor is it the submarine sandwich she’ll have to skip as she races from class to work; on $7.50 a day, the only sandwich Rachel Crane can afford is home-made.

"How many cucumber sandwiches can I eat before I wither away?" asked the fourth-year Brock University student, a Georgetown native.

Crane is one of four Ontario undergraduates who will spend the next three weeks eating on just $7.50 a day, the amount the province’s student aid program provides for food. In daily blogs and twice-weekly videos, they hope to show the need for Ontario to raise its student loan ceilings.

To cut costs, Crane will seek one of the $25 emergency grocery vouchers Brock’s student union offers cash-strapped students; this year it has upped the number of vouchers to 105 from 75 last year because of the recession.

"What I’ll really miss is the fresh fruit and vegetables you need to be healthy," said the 22-year-old business major. "OSAP assumes students should live below the poverty line, and that’s not good, especially for students who need the energy you get from healthy eating," said the fourth-year student.

The Food For Thought campaign – a sort of OSAP diet that starts Monday, was launched by the Ontario Undergraduate Students’ Alliance to highlight the fact Queen’s Park has not raised student loan limits in four years.

"They did a great thing four years ago but it hasn’t been enough - especially not when poverty reduction is a big part of this government’s strategy," said Alexi White, the alliance’s executive director.

The Ontario government overhauled student aid in 2005, boosting loans by $358 million a year by 2010 and introducing the first non-repayable grants for low-income students in more than a decade.

Now, as post-secondary institutions await the government’s next multi-year funding plan, White warns OSAP’s annual living allowance for a single student living away from home is only $12,540 a year – below Ontario’s poverty line of about $15,200 for rural areas to $22,171 in big cities.

"The government also expects students to be able to save $2,170 from summer earnings – even though the student unemployment rate last year was 16.4 per cent," said White. He noted too that students who earn more than $50 a week during the year to supplement their loan have that amount clawed back from their loan payments.

"Campus food banks are on the rise and it’s not fair that the government assesses student need at an unrealistically low level," he said.

 

POVERTY IN THE MEDIA