How are food banks and other community and anti-poverty organizations dealing with current service demands, concerns about impacts of US tariffs and an economic downturn, and advocacy for long-lasting change through government relations work? In our recent CharityVillage Connects podcast episode, Navigating Political and Economic Upheaval: Advice from Nonprofits on the Frontline, we spoke with nonprofit leaders from community organizations to find out.
Carolyn Stewart, CEO of Feed Ontario, was one of these interviewees. Feed Ontario, Ontario’s only provincial network dedicated to serving food banks and hunger-relief agencies. In the interview, Carolyn discussed how food banks are buckling under existing service demands, the need for nonprofit organizations to speak up on behalf of the communities they serve, and the importance of approaching government relations work. Here’s a short excerpt from her interview (you can watch the full video interview at the bottom of this page).
We began by asking Carolyn to discuss some of Feed Ontario’s government relations work.
Carolyn Stewart: Actually one of our pillars is “Feed Change”. And really that centers around advocacy and research around the issues of food insecurity and what’s really driving people to access food banks. Because ultimately, as we’re not the solution, we feel we have a very direct role in playing to make recommendations on how to make change happen, so our services are no longer needed. So our advocacy work as an organization and as a network…includes regular meetings with MPPs, stakeholders. We do lobbying days at Queens Park. We participate in roundtable discussions, consultations, that sort of thing, to make sure that we’re continuously sharing these stories and these recommendations on how we know we can make change.
With the upcoming election, Feed Ontario is also working to inform voters on how each party is planning to prioritize poverty and what we would like to see prioritized. So again, it’s all about information and making sure that people are balanced and understand what they’re voting for when it comes to election time. I think I mentioned briefly, we really want the provincial government to take bold action on poverty and not just invest in businesses, which is also very important, but we need to find a balance to make sure that we’re investing in people and communities as well. And so, while our network itself is stretched very thin, from our lens, we always create tools and resources so that we can collectively engage in advocacy work on the ground level as well.
Next, we asked Carolyn to share some tips or strategies for other organizations looking to engage in government relations work.
Carolyn Stewart: I think advocacy and government relations work can sometimes seem overwhelming and a bit intimidating if you’ve never done it before. But I think, first and foremost, always remember that you’re the subject matter expert. You know your area of expertise…so you need to make sure that you’re the subject matter expert.
You know what you’re talking about, but present that information in a digestible way. So MPPs, as I mentioned, come from diverse backgrounds, right? They’re not going to have the same depth of knowledge. So it’s not going to be straight forward to them, but if they can understand your issues in a digestible way, taking something complex and making it tangible is definitely an essential first step.
And second, I think it’s always important to find common ground, which can be very difficult. But we ultimately believe that people who get into politics are there because they want to make a difference in their community. They’re passionate about something and that’s why they’re there. And so we may not always agree on what that looks like or how to get there, but we may have a shared priority. So, finding ways to really work together on those shared priorities can really go a long way at building those relationships and those foundations for future change as well.
And I think finally, and most important, I think it’s essential to be honest. The challenges we face as a province are complex and sometimes governments don’t really have a clear line of sight on how different policies or interventions are actually affecting the individual and people. So, you are there as a voice of the people and as a voice from the community or group that may not otherwise have a voice. And so, you need to speak clearly and honestly about the realities that people are facing, and families are facing, and how the government policies or practices are impacting their lives, whether that be good or bad. So, [it can help to speak to] a change you may have seen by a great policy implementation or alternately one that’s creating barriers and challenges for many families within your community. So, for us, we always say, we think there’s always opportunity and we’re never going to be able to move forward as communities unless we have informed dialogue and we’re willing to connect.
Finally, Carolyn shared her concerns and thoughts about how US tariffs may impact the communities that Feed Ontario serves, and the realities currently playing out across the province.
Carolyn Stewart: I think it’s a very concerning time for a lot of people in communities. We’re seeing changes to social policies, people’s rights, and even decisions that can drastically impact our economy.
When it comes to our network…we’re seeing the highest demand ever on record. But the concern of the actions south of the border and what that could result in in terms of job losses for so many Ontarians and Canadians, what that will mean for businesses, what that may mean for businesses who are partners but may no longer have funding to support organizations or partner on key initiatives that are helping ensure that we can provide our services…you know, it’s so many unknowns right now, which is what the biggest concerns for us are. And we’re already seeing governments, as we’ve seen, take action, make promises regarding emergency relief for business. But we haven’t necessarily seen the government’s response on what the emergency response will be for people and for families. And so again, we need to make sure we’re taking a broad lens and approaching policy and responses to situations, looking at the complexity, because it’s not just one-to-one, right? We know that something as complex as poverty…so many different things intertwine and contribute to how someone gets there, but also what leads them to barriers to even getting out of poverty? And so with what we’re seeing in the drastic impacts that we can see on our economy, if these tariffs are put into place, are, I think, a huge cause for concern for everybody.
When we look at our data and how we’ve seen the long-standing affordability crisis impact Ontarians, we know that there are just so many families who are one paycheck away from needing a food bank, one paycheck away from potentially losing a roof over their head. And so, whether today or in the future, we need all levels of government to prioritize the investments and help ensure that should there be a sudden or significant job loss, that people are able to stay on their feet or get back on their feet.
And so from our lens right now, the food bank network does not have the capacity to shoulder another significant economic downturn. So, we’re still serving the influx of demand that actually got brought on by the pandemic, so it’s never slowed down since then. And so when we put the affordability crisis on top of that, it’s really just made something so complex. What the scariest part, I think, is for everyone is, you know, when we saw the 2008 recession, our food bank use didn’t actually peak after that until two years later, because oftentimes people are using all the other mechanisms to get by before having to go to a food bank, burning through savings, borrowing from payday loans, or friends staying on people’s couches, that sort of thing. But now the precarity is so much higher, we don’t think it’s going to be delayed like that to allow time to prepare. It is going to be a tsunami of demand.
So realistically, again, our focus would most likely be on advocacy and government relations to make sure that, as I said, that the message is clear, that the voices of those that we’re servicing are being heard, that it’s not solely businesses being prioritized, but also in terms of emergency response, making sure that communities and people and individual families have the capacity to respond. Because ultimately, families being able to weather that storm on their own without social services is the ultimate best solution prior to relying on us.
Want to hear more from Carolyn Stewart? Listen to her full interview in the video below.
Listen to Carolyn Stewart and other nonprofit leaders discuss how political and economic upheaval is impacting their communities and their organizations, as well as what they are doing about it, in this episode of CharityVillage Connects. Click here to listen.
