The Basic Income Peterborough Network (BIPN) is offering a new forum with the hope of bringing together like-minded community members in Peterborough who are working towards improving living conditions and raising awareness about the importance of a basic income guarantee.
BIPN will launch the inaugural workshop in its monthly Hope Series on World Food Day (Wednesday, October 16) in collaboration with the Peterborough Food Action Network (PFAN). BIPN’s workshop series is intended to build solidarity across the various activities and groups at work in the community.
“The Hope Series provides an opportunity for people and groups engaged in a diverse range of projects and initiatives intended to improve conditions in our community to come together to share their perspectives and ideas in support of addressing some of our most pressing challenges,” Kathryn Matheson, certified nutritional practitioner and member of both BIPN and PFAN, shared with kawarthaNOW.
“By cultivating resilience, creativity, and imagination, the series has the potential to generate new and different conversations, in turn leading to the emergence of collaborations and policy innovations grounded in the extension of dignity and belonging to all members of our community,” Matheson added.
Each workshop in the Hope Series will be held in partnership with a local activist or advocacy group working on a different issue to draw connections between the work of those groups, and BIPN’s own efforts towards a national basic income guarantee. The workshop series is expected to culminate in a “Hope Festival” in 2025.
“There’s so much work happening in our community to support the common good, and that keeps me hopeful in the face of the overlapping crises we’re experiencing locally and globally,” said Elisha Rubacha, community impact officer at United Way Peterborough & District and member of both BIPN and PFAN.
“(BIPN’s) Hope Series is a way of not only highlighting those important efforts, but illustrating the ways in which various social issues are intimately connected with one another. By creating bridges that link our different movements, we are all made stronger. This World Food Day event is the first workshop in a series that has the potential to generate a broader collective voice for change.”
BIPN views a basic income guarantee as not only an income floor for those who need it, but a policy that would enable greater civic engagement across the country.
“When people are no longer struggling to survive, they have more freedom to participate in our democracy, as well as grassroots organizing for systemic change,” a media release noted.
PFAN members, community members engaged in food work, or anyone interested in food insecurity are invited to join the first session, which runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Peterborough Public Health, which is on the second floor of 185 King St. in Peterborough. There will be a food demonstration, followed by a light meal, along with knowledge sharing on food and income insecurity.
PFAN members will provide an update on local food insecurity rates and discuss their three-pronged approach to addressing food insecurity. Joan DiFruscia from the Otonabee-South Monaghan Food Cupboard will share some insights from her work within the food bank system.
Members of BIPN will offer a primer on a basic income guarantee, and there will be an opportunity for participants to have conversations at their tables.
The lunch-and-learn event is free, but space is limited with advance registration required at eventbrite.ca/e/102167154609.
Since 2015, BIPN has brought community members together to advocate for a basic income guarantee. Through local public education and advocacy efforts at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels, BIPN strives to “generate interest in, and understanding of, this transformative policy solution.” For more information, visit basicincomepeterborough.ca.
PFAN’s vision is that everyone in Peterborough city and county will have enough healthy food to eat as part of a long-term food security strategy. PFAN brings together agencies and individuals to build community food security as part of local poverty reduction efforts. For more information, visit foodinpeterborough.ca.
World Food Day
VIDEO: World Food Day 2024
World Food Day is an international day celebrated every year around the world on October 16 to commemorate the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945. Each year has a different theme, with the 2024 theme being “Right to foods for a better life and a better future.”
“The world’s farmers produce enough food to feed more than the global population yet, hunger persists,” states the FAO website. “Around 733 million people are facing hunger in the world due to repeated weather shocks, conflicts, economic downturns, inequality, and the pandemic. This impacts the poor and vulnerable most severely, many of whom are agricultural households, reflecting widening inequalities across and within countries.”
“Food is the third most basic human need after air and water — everyone should have the right to adequate food. Human rights such as the right to food, life and liberty, work and education are recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two legally binding international covenants.
For more information about World Food Day, visit www.fao.org/world-food-day/.
