Smiths Falls is Starving! 🚨 Food Emergency Declared!

The Situation

Aight, so boom. Smiths Falls, this town in Ontario with about 10k residents, just dropped a major bomb: they're officially dealing with a food insecurity emergency. What's that mean? Basically, too many ppl can't afford enough food or good quality food. Big yikes.

The food banks are getting absolutely swamped. Like, before COVID, they were helping maybe 300 ppl a month. Now? Try 950! That's more than triple, fam! And here's the messed up part: these food banks are running on donations alone. No steady cash flow from the government, which is kinda sus, tbh.

Councilor Peter McKenna was like, "Ppl are STRUGGLING with times they don't even know." Mayor Shawn Pankow also chimed in, saying that while it's not entirely their job, they need to put it out there and help get the word out, even if they can't directly fix it.

Apparently, Smiths Falls ain't the only place dealing with this struggle. Kingston already called a food emergency back in January. Ottawa reported that one in four households are dealing with food insecurity. Mayor Pankow thinks it's even worse in Smiths Falls! The South East Health Unit reported that 15.5% of households in Lanark, Leeds, and Grenville are dealing with food insecurity.

This is a major L for the community, and it's got everyone stressed. Hopefully, this emergency declaration will bring some attention to the problem and get some real help to the ppl who need it. Stay woke, fam. This is a problem in our backyards!