There has been a social media movement on Twitter to persuade people to donate their gift cards once they receive them to local food banks.
Loblaws is giving away from 3 to 6 million $25 gift cards because of a bread price fixing scandal and many shoppers say they plan on donating those gift cards to their local food banks.
Dr. Evan Fraser is the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and says while such gestures are seen as laudable, they don’t get to the root of the problem which is social and economic policy.
He says there’s plenty of food in Canada, the problem for people living in poverty is having enough money to buy the food they need.
Dr. Fraser says mandating food companies to give the food they would normally throw out to food banks might be a good idea but he calls it a band aid solution.
