Food bank has seen more of the 'working poor' using its services--people work two jobs and can't make ends meet

SURREY (NEWS 1130) – The challenges of the working poor will not be eliminated due to today’s increase in the minimum wage.

That’s the argument from the Surrey Food Bank, which says the extra dollar an hour isn’t likely to reduce demand for its services.

When you consider the rising costs of housing, and of course things like gas, this extra dollar an hour isn’t going to solve the affordability crisis many in our region endure every day, according to Seezah Jaffer with the Surrey Food Bank.

While the increase will offer some relief, she says more needs to be done.

“We serve about 14,000 individuals each month in Surrey and North Delta. We’re seeing an increase in what we’re calling the ‘working poor’. So, those who are on minimum wage or just above minimum wage jobs, one or two jobs sometimes.”

She says even with a boost to minimum wage, there’s still a disparity between economy and reality.

“It’s a great step forward to have the minimum wage up to $15 by 2020. At the same time, we have to do better in helping those people who are struggling. We have to find better solutions to bring down the cost of gas, to bring down the cost of food, to battle the housing crisis,” she says.

“We have to bring the other services forward. It’s a difference between equality and equity.”

Meanwhile, farm workers will have to wait until January for their increase — if their job still even exists.

The coming mandatory wage boost is prompting Rhonda Driediger with Driediger Farms and others in that industry to focus more on automation, or take an immediate 10 to 15 per cent hit to their bottom line.

“We’ve been working with the machinery people to either create machines or modify machines for our uses so that we cal reduce labour and still harvest and be effective,” she says.

“Producers now are just not people off the street that buy a farm–you actually have to have a lot of knowledge, you have to be super flexible, you have to be able to be a business person, or corporations that farm We have to watch our bottom line as much as anyone else.”