Welfare recipients could work for food

What would you do in their shoes? (Column, May 9)

After reading Andrew Dreschel’s column about giving food vouchers to single people collecting welfare, I have a suggestion.

Why not have a program like meals on wheels, where fresh fruit and vegetables could be distributed to those who need them, without exposing them to ridicule and scorn by labelling them as poor and destitute.

Better yet, why not have people on welfare do a little work, like graffiti removal, in order to get something in return, like free fruits and vegetables, donated by local farmers’ markets. This will get people moving and used to doing something constructive, while collecting social assistance cheques.

Hamilton spends about $2 million a year having municipal staff and community volunteers clean up graffiti; why not use some of that budget to get able-bodied social service recipients back on their feet by doing a little work to pay back society for giving them a hand up.

Mark-Alan Whittle, Hamilton