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Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
Diagnosing The Workplace: Not Just An HR Podcast
BONUS: How Food Banks Subsidize Businesses and Corporations
In this episode, we participate inPodcasthon and are dedicating a full episode to talk about a charity that we feel needs to be highlighted, Local Food Banks.
Our prescription for this episode is to understand how important Food Banks are to the workforce and why we all should be donating to them, whether it is food, money, or time. Every little bit helps.
Past Episode Referenced:
Season 1 Episode 19 - Is Money The Key To Talent Attraction And Retention?
Season 1 Episode 15 - Is Job Dissatisfaction Really That Dangerous?
Learn more about Podcasthon at Podcasthon.org
Support Food Banks Canada
Support Feeding America
Support Trussell Trust
You can reach out to us to talk more about supporting a strong workforce, just reach out to us at info@roman3.ca or through our LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/roman3
Don't forget to sign up for our New Quarterly Newsletter that launched this fall!
About Our Hosts!
James is an experienced business coach with a specialization in HR management and talent attraction and retention.
Coby is a skilled educator and has an extensive background in building workforce and organizational capacity.
For a little more on our ideas and concepts, check out our Knowledge Suite or our YouTube Channel, Solutions Explained by Roman 3.
Breaking down everyday workplace issues and diagnosing the hidden sickness, not just the obvious symptom. Our hosts, James and Coby.
[COBY]:Did we lose a patient?
[JAMES]:No, that's just my lunch. Hey, I'm James, he's Coby. And we're doing something a bit different today. So this is a bonus episode of Diagnosing the Workplace. And we are really excited for this because we are participating in the Podcasthon.
[COBY]:Yeah. So we're doing something that's part of a kind of, like, global, kind of nonprofit initiative that encourages, podcast host to dedicate one episode of their show to a charity of their choice. And then all of these episodes of these podcasts that are participating in Podcast on are going to be, released some simultaneously throughout kind of a set week here in mid March. The point of the podcast on is creating, like, a massive international wave of inspiring audio content to raise awareness to a huge number of charities worldwide. We're very excited that we were, asked to participate. you want toa learn more about podcast on and some of the other cool episodes in this place, go to podcastthon.org. and we're pretty excited to talk about the charity that we chose, because the charity that we chose is not necessarily about national or international big charities. We want to talk about your local food bank.
[JAMES]:Yeah. Food banks are a massively important part of our communities. They are charitable organizations that provide a tremendous amount of support to your neighbors, to your family, to yourselves. the usage of food banks has also increased substantially over the last number of years, consistently. and the, it's a broad usage too. It affects everyone. food insecurity is a huge national, local, provincial, state, national, international problem. and there are lots of resources to help people, but they need your help to help others.
[COBY]:Yeah. And what is so important about food banks in general is that they are something that most people or everybody really knows about. And everyone has, I'm sure, has seen, you know, like, like, you know, at your local level, like, you know, like, encouraging for donations and hey, do you want, know, like, stores, hey, do you want to donate a dollar for your purchase to your local food bank? And we hear kind of about our local food banks all the time. But I think it's one of those things where we hear about them kind of and we know they exist. And if you're not someone that uses them or you're not someone that, you know, uses them, it's not something that's more. That's really top of mind for you.
[JAMES]:And sometimes we only think about the food banks at Christmas time and it's an important time to support your local food bank so that people have healthy, nutritious meals during the holiday season, but they need the support throughout the rest of the year as well.
[COBY]:Absolutely. And that is one of the things that is one you, you're right. I think food banks, if they do enter people's minds, it's usually around Christmas time and but the thing is that they're not only used to Christmas, they're used consistently throughout the year. But donations tend to be plentiful in Christmas time. But then the problem is a lot of food banks are kind of like expected to kind of make those big donations that they get around Christmas time last throughout the year and they just don't. And that's something that most people know. Oh, I never really thought about that. But the other thing that I like about promoting and really trying to raise awareness about the value of food banks is that they help your specific community. You donate to your local food bank, what 100% of the donated food is used by someone in your community. So it's 100% donations. And if you provide money to your local food banks then it is used to purchase the non perishable stuff so that the local family people that possibly, if you're not one that uses them, you probably do know people who do use them but you may not know that they use them. So it's one of those things where it stays in your community. It's hyperlocal. It's something that I say when it's food, it's 100% of your donation goes to help someone make their life a little bit better. So it's one of those things where I would say food banks are like the, the least of the sexy kind of charities out there that once people get excited about but they're just.
[JAMES]:Consider the impact is almost beyond measure.
[COBY]:Yeah, absolutely. So one thing I want to kind of talk a little bit about is like so first let's prep some folks here. We did some major homework to prepare for this episode. One we always like to make sure we know we're talking about but some of those things where we wanted to just provide really helpful kind of ideas information. So we're going to talk a little bit about kind of like some lister known facts about food banks. Ah as we go, we're going to get into some statistics and we're going to talk about statistics primarily in Canada and the US So we do have a little bit from the uk But I think we want to kind of also state that when we're talking about some of these broader stats you. I think there's a lot of relevance to like the Canadian stats and stuff will likely be similar in the UK and in Germany and in Europe and in Scandinavian countries and in Australia and that kind of stuff like that. This stuff is pretty much global as you were saying earlier. and then we're going to go into probably a bit of a darker.
[JAMES]:more James like conversation.
[COBY]:So you might have noticed a snarkier tone to the title of this episode and let me just say that that title was chosen by James as we got into researching some of the stats that we wanted to talk about this episode and his blood started to boil. So we're going to talk a little bit about just lesser known facts about food banks and we're going to get into some statistics and then you're going to see James picking up speed at with his rage. So buckle as I do so while I just take a little bit of time and talk about just some general facts about food banks. oay. So as you said before people donate you like mostly around the holidays and this is often when food banks are overwhelmed with donations to the point that they actually run out of room. So if you are like I want to donate to my local food bank, when's going to be the best time? Non busy months which tend to be kind of like the slower times are not around, not around major food related holidays. Like not around Thanksgiving, not around Easter, not around Christmas. The kind of off quieter months is probably the best time because like I say around holidays is when they're the most overwhelmed.
[JAMES]:I just want to clarify when you're saying quieter, you're being quieter in terms of the volume of donations, not in terms of the volume of need.
[COBY]:Yes, the volume of need. Never really. There's never a quiet month in when it comes to need. There's only quiet months in terms of donations. So that's something that if you're like when's the best time? like you know right now.
[JAMES]:Right now is a really good time.
[COBY]:Absolutely. Kind of like May, great time. Summer, phenomenal times. Right. September, an absolute amazing time. So just like know there's never a bad time but there's really good time. so that's kind of the first thing we want you to know. The second one is about often when you go into like stores they'll have Pre bag donations from supermarkets and grocery stores don't buy those. They're really not what know there's very, very few stores if any, but we'll round up and say very few consult with food banks to see what food that is actually needed. A lot of times they some stores just dump excess stuff in there and even some still actually mark up the price on a lot of food bank donation.
[JAMES]:And this one is one of the facts that started the blood boiling because not only do they give donations that are useless or not well constructed, not only do they mark up and make money off of the so called donations, they are using your money to get a charitable tax receipt while providing something of little to no value to the actual charity that they propose to support. So if you want to support charity, do not do it through a grocery store or a chain. It's unlikely to have the impact that you want. It's easy and that's what and convenient. But it's not going to have the impact that that same $2 in the hands of somebody who's, who works for a food bank who can use that money to buy what's actually going to help people will have such a greater value to them.
[COBY]:Yeah. And that brings us to the third point is that cash donations are extremely valuable to local food banks. Partially because again when we donate stuff we often know they want canned goods, they want like you know like box goods, they want non perishable stuff. Right. But think about the kind of the nutritional value of a lot of those things. They're great like they're great sides, they're great like proteins sometimes, but they're not great for nutrients, are great for vitamins which is what you kind need to get. Which comes in the perishables, right? Comes in the milk, it comes in the vegetables and that's where the cash donations are primarily used for is to buy the healthier foods, the perishable foods so that people are actually getting balanced meal and good nutrition from the food banks. So please consider giving cash donations and like James said, give them to them yourself directly. And the last one is if providing food is something that might be a little bit tough for providing money, might be be a little bit tough. Volunteer food banks are typically run like 5% by staff who are overworked and really just pushed to the limit. And it's usually 95% volunteers that what make food banks possible. And sometimes these may be one time volunteers, they may be regulars, they could be students. but it's A great place to volunteer and it's actually a great place to bring your family to volunteer like maybe during bus, the busier times. So on the holidays, maybe both. If you don't, if you don't want to give the donations or the food, give some time. They could definitely use the help. But again it's one of those things where there's no wrong way to support a food bank when it comes to like receiving. If you're giving the food, if you're giving money or giving your time, everything is definitely going to be well used and you are helping your local community, not communities elsewhere and not communities that are so far removed from you that you won't feel it. People in your neighborhood are going to be, are going to be helped by that.
[JAMES]:And as challenging as it is to run off of 90, 95% volunteer staff, it does speak to the other element that sometimes is not always present in charitable organizations and that food banks typically have a very low administrative cost. Right. So when you give money, some of that for whatever charity you give to goes to the cost of just running the charitable organization. It has to, there's operating costs like all of us have operating costs. But food banks tend to have a very, very low administrative cost where other charities have been quite publicly known as having very high administrative costs. And you $10 that you give, you know, maybe only 6 of it goes to the actual need. Right. So it's, it's one more reason why your local food banks can really make use, really good use of cash donations.
[COBY]:Yeah. Now there are kind of like national food bank groups that people should be aware of. Like in Canada, there's the Canadian Food bank which is kind of kind of a global organization that kind of funds, provides funding to local, to local food banks. There's Feeding America M kind of the same thing. there's I think the Trussell Trust I think is what they're called. In the UK There are like national or large, if not large non profits themselves, but there's charities that definitely support them. So if you're like, I don't know if I can't find my local food bank, but I still want to help out, then you can look at some of those national ones. But we always kind of say we recommend, go right to your local food.
[JAMES]:Banks local first if you're able to. But those organizations do great work as well. Right. They're all part of the supply chain of promoting food security for people. They provide Research, they provide advocacy, they provide a lot of really important other elements. Where your local food bank, if you want to impact your community, local, if you want to try to impact policy or advocacy, those national agencies can be a really good resource for that.
[COBY]:That's a really good point. So let's just talk a little bit about why they're so vital and look into some, some of the stats we found out. Now a lot of these stats come from these national organizations, Feeding America, Canadian food banks and that sort of stuff. but just to kind of make it clear how big of a deal they make in your community. So, There was over 2 million visits to food banks across Canada in March of 2024, which is just the time that they were capturing the data. So 2 million visits monthly is basically what we're seeing in 2024, which was up 6% from 2023 and that was up, I believe, 5% from 2022. It is growing by 5 to 6% every year since COVID It was going up a little bit before COVID but Covid really poured gasoline on this food insecurity fire.
[JAMES]:And this is where an example of where one of the few times compound interest is a bad thing.
[COBY]:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because, because if you think about it, that's, that turns into millions additional visits a year, 6%, 5% every year. So it is. So the need is going up now. 42% of food bank users in Canada are single adult households, which are the most common types of households that access to food banks. So single people living off a single income are again almost half of the food bank users in Canada. Now in the U.S. 100% of U.S. counties have food insecurity. Now some of them have a much higher rate than others. But every single county in the US has food insecurity. But people in rural communities and honestly in the southern United States are often more likely to lack access to enough food. And this has to do with different factors like around unemployment and poverty and the cost of living. But I mean there is not a county in the US that is not struggling with food insecurity. So it's one of those things where like me say, hyper local would be really helpful because your neighbors are dealing with food insecurity. That's just a fact.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And the fact that what is it, 47 million people in the US face hunger and the soul crushing realization comes when you realize that one in five of those people are children.
[COBY]:Yeah. And that's just it. Like we say that single adult Households are probably in Canada are probably some of the largest or one of the most common household types. But let's not deny the fact that there is a huge amount of child poverty and a child hunger in Canada and the US and also again in the UK.
[JAMES]:And I'm sure we can speak more confidently about Canada and the United States, but these are not unique problems by any stretch of the imagination.
[COBY]:Yeah. And in 2023 alone, more than 50 million people, in the US turned to food assistance for extra help. Like this is one of those things where there is sometimes with a lot of charities and with a lot of things like this, we're talking about things like hunger. A lot of people don't really process the impact if they. Well, I don't know anybody that does that. I'm going to say, you know, somebody that accesses the food bank as a regular part of their making it through.
[JAMES]:The month, plan their survival tactics.
[COBY]:Yeah, absolutely. But it's not something that they wear.
[JAMES]:On their sleeve, unfortunately. Like we all need help from time to time.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:And unfortunately there is still a stigma attached to receiving help. Which is unfortunate. but I mean, so up until now it may seem like, okay, you guys talk about workplace issues. you talk about, we, you know, this podcast is diagnosing the workplace. It's focused on, organizational, effectiveness. Workplace, Organizational culture. Workplace people and culture. So what is the connection to food banks and food security? Well, of the one large demographic that uses food banks are people who are employed. And that's going to feature very prominently in the James G. Mad section of the show.
[COBY]:Yeah.
[JAMES]:So nearly 20% of people accessing food banks in Canada are employed, which is a much higher percentage than I necessarily thought prior to researching some of this data.
[COBY]:Well, I mean if you think about again, a lot of people, again, food banks are not things that most people put a lot of thought into. If you don't access it or you don't know someone.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:You aware of people that are access that, you know, it's not something that really kind of enters your mind a lot. But everyone does probably have some type of imaginative situation about who accesses food banks and thinking that's mostly like people, on assistance with multiple kids or kind of your seniors. But Don, they think, well, if you have a job, you're not accessing the food bank. Right?
[JAMES]:Wrong. Wrong.
[COBY]:Very much wrong.
[JAMES]:In the United States those numbers are quite a bit higher.
[COBY]:Well actually, before we jump into the U.S. let's just put a Little bit of context here. Okay, so again now around 20% of those the access to food bank in Canada are employed. That's a very similar number to what the trust will Trust in the UK which is a, ah, major anti poverty charity and community food bank. They revealed as one in five. So about 20% of people that use the UK food banks were from households where someone worked as well. Now the American stats are far more concerned.
[JAMES]:Yeah, Feed America's stats on so 20% Canada, 20% UK are employed. In the United States, according to Feed America, it' make up employed households make up over half of Feed America's food bank users which is approximately 25 million individuals. And what's more is that in the United States it's not just that working families are turning to food banks only in emergencies. Most report depending on their local food banks as part of their regular survival strategy. And so nearly or over half are employed and one in nine working age veterans are in the United States are food insecure. All of these things paint a fairly grim picture of the need for food security in United Kingdom, USA and other places.
[COBY]:Everywhere.
[JAMES]:Everywhere. But the United States also has another program called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or snap. It's what people commonly refer to as food stamps. And what's interesting about that program is that 51% of wage earning adults that are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program worked full time hours, so 35, 40 hours a week for 50 or more weeks a year. So you have, I believe it was somewhere in the range of about 9 million snap users, or registers, I don't remember the proper terminology. about 9 million of SNAP users are full time, are employed. 51% of those are full time year round, working 40 hours a week, 50 weeks or more a year and receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And it's likely to, it's a likely assumption that they're also accessing food banks.
[COBY]:Well, yeah, because, because we say it was 25, it was about 25 million individuals in America access food bank, which you know, that are employed. So. Yeah, and this is, this is just, it is that what this paints a picture of is that there are large numbers of Americans, of Canadians, of Brits, who are working full time and are still food insecure.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:And as we talked about before, the numbers of people accessing food banks have gone up 5% one year, 6% another year. And this problem is getting worse.
[JAMES]:Yeah, well, and we think about how much like, even like Food with food security goes a lot or food insecurity go a lot of other very common problems as well. Housing insecurity becomes a major issue. access to m. Proper medical treatment. and if you're not able to access proper nutrition then that impacts your health and if you're not able to access proper medical or health care then you know it just, it has this compounding effect of creating a disastrous situation for people.
[COBY]:Well and so let's get into this the getting kind of back into our kind of niche of our podcast talking about, about the impact on the workplace when you have what we deem poverty wages. Right.
[JAMES]:So let's actually state my. The title of the episode how food banks supplement. What did we call it? subsidize businesses and corporations. And it really is nonprofit charitable organizations and or government programs designed to support often the most vulnerable people in our society are subsidizing large many large businesses.[COBY]: Yeah. The most well known and largest examples of businesses that are we'll say. culprits. I was trying to think of a nicer word but that's really what it is.
[COBY]:This isn't going to get any nicer so just lean into it.
[JAMES]:Well this. Okay, yes. I will try to remain some. I'm not going to be able to be neutral on this topic but that's okay. so the problem with this whole conversation is that it's often exceptionally large, exceptionally profitable businesses that employ large numbers of people who are required to access these ah programs and supports. Walmart is a major example. Nobody listening to this is going to be surprised that Walmart features prominently in the conversation because they have been in the, the big part of this conversation for years. but it's not just Walmart. there are lots of other large major corporate entities that employ people at a what we would consider a poverty wage. the thing is that like, like.
[COBY]:They employ them in a poverty wage which really is at their disadvantage. I mean it is.
[JAMES]:There is a massive It hurts themselves in so many ways. Anyways, I'm interrupting you go ahead.
[COBY]:But like I mean, but. Well I mean I was going to build on your point because the idea is that the poverty wages bring exponential greater workforce problems to businesses. And so we did an episode in season one where we talked about kind is money the key to talent attraction and retention? We talked about this a little bit. We kind talked about the diminishing returns when you get to certain levels of wages but we talked a little bit about poverty wages there. But the idea is that it, it's the compound interest of awful things that happen to you when you're living in poverty because everything, it is so much more, expensive to be broke. Then people realize, right? Because I mean, it just creates a chain reaction, right? So if you were saying your food insecure, you may not be getting the nutrition that you need or the required calories in a day. And that may cause you to have some health issues. Like maybe it's a matter of causing bone density issues because you're not getting enough calcium or whatever it is, which will cause dental problems and dental care issues. And then you have more pain because of that and which exacerbates the problem with eating proper foods and which affects your health. And then you get into more health issues. And this is that, this is what people is there every day when they're in these situations where they're full time employed and they're living on the poverty and they're living with these poverty wages. We talked a little bit in that episode about how expensive car maintenance is when you can't afford a reliable vehicle. So you're missing time. And then, and what this does is this creates problems for the employer, right? Because when you're employing the working poor, it comes with inherent issues around higher health issues, around, more childcare issues, around more transportation barriers.
[JAMES]:There's all these different levels of absenteeism, right? Like it's all of the things that I've heard that we've heard for years, businesses complain about or raise as an issue. one of the challenges is around, you know, how do I find reliable people? Because the people who I'm employing are, they're not showing up or they're calling in sick or they, they have too many issues at home.
[COBY]:Cars are always in the sh.
[JAMES]:Cars always breaking down. Kids always, always need something and. Right. So all of the, but all the problems are framed from a employee perspective. It's their problem. It's the individual who is not doing enough to fix their problems when the problems are compounded by so many other factors. And there is a, I mean if people do not have enough, if they have to choose between, keeping the lights on or putting food on the table or feeding their children versus feeding themselves. Right? These types of decisions not only have a direct physical impact on people, they have a significant mental and emotional impact on people. And you cannot expect that when somebody walks through the doors of your business that all of that baggage is left at the Door. It doesn't happen. You may want it to. It's not going, it's not a reality. It's not going to happen.
[COBY]:One thing that we've heard a lot because again a lot the work that we do is trying to address things like attraction and retention issues with businesses is that why is it so hard to find anybody now? The people haven't gone anywhere. But why is it that no one is applying for our jobs or this or that. Well one of the things that most people don't realize is that when the cost of living exceeds of the standard, the standard reliable wage for someone, it actually pulls single parents out of the workforce. Y and that's something that most people don't realize is that when we have this culture of poverty wages and we have this high cost of living and all this and food is so much more expensive, we have all these kind of like recessionary issues. What it does is because of like things that James just said, people not being able to be healthy enough to eat or kids are not being healthy enough to kind of go to school reliably or childcare is too expensive. All that pressure is compounded on single parents which pulls many of them out of the workforce. Or it has or even in some cases to a lesser degree but still a big problem where you have two parent homes where one parent has to leave their job to deal with all of these other kind of things too. Right. So it actually creates it this, this talent shortage because of this reduction of opportunities and this reduction of reliable employment for single parents specifically but also kind of pulling parents out of, out of the workforce.
[JAMES]:Yeah, it, these issues, these are multifaceted complex issues connected though that are, they are connected and it's. You can't expect that if you are going to. We're not saying that the be all and end all fix is to pay people more money. That's going to help that. Let's be realistic. That is something that would help but that's not the be all and end all and for especially because it's not just the big companies that know this impacts. It impacts mom and pop shops as well. It impacts small, medium large corporate entities. It impacts anybody who is paying wages that are in and around the federal, state or provincial minimums. And that's a large number of employers. Your ability to if you're a small company, you may not have the ability to pay a substantially higher income. to the point where it's Going to you know, magically fix all of these problems. What we need to do is look at ways that we can better support people and look at we need to. There's a number of issues at play and one of them is that we only ever look at what we offer, employees from a single dimension of are we being competitive with what everybody else is doing?
[COBY]:Right.
[JAMES]:All right, so you've heard us talk way too much, about the factors of the workplace compensation being one very important one and how they need to be not only competitive, but they need to be sufficient and equitable. And this conversation really lives deeply in the concept of is our compensation is what we provide to people, our mental health, our wellness supports, whether it's mental health or otherwise, Are we being sufficient to take to accomplish what we need to accomplish so that people can provide their best work to us?
[COBY]:Absolutely. And that's just it is that the, the measuring stick that most corporations have always used and well, the business community kind of sees as the again, as a way to kind of gauge their success with these factors is around. Well, are we in line with our peers? Are we line with other businesses in this area? And the problem is that's a false kind of. That's a faulty way to look at it because it's a bad metric. Because what matters more is okay, it's not just are we able to. Are we meeting, our competitors are. But are we actually meeting the intended purpose? Are we sufficient in applying this to them? Because a lot of times you, these large corporate entities who are just comparing each other with each other are all blowing it.
[JAMES]:Yeah. And we talk competitive with everyone else and still terr.
[COBY]:But if everyone sucks, then guess what, you suck.
[JAMES]:Yeah.
[COBY]:but it's the idea too of like we talked about this idea of the, what we call the Amazing Race to the bottom, which is when all we're trying to do is stay competitive with, with, with who we see as our peers or we see as our direct competition in the labor market or in the consumer market. And we're just trying to make sure that we're just in line with them. But as we realize, you know, that's not meeting sufficiency, then we're all just racing to see who's. Who's the top of the worst is really what it is.
[JAMES]:Well, that's just a. Competitiveness is the floor. And when everybody races to just maintain that baseline minimum floor of what's acceptable, the. There's actually a tremendous opportunity for those who are a little more Ambitious, with their businesses because when everyone else is racing to the bottom, it doesn't take an awful lot to step up and above the crowd to make yourself as, a distinct and viable choice in the labor market by doing m just a little bit more than what everybody else is doing. Right. Not just on the competitive angle, but remember, it's also being sufficient and equitable.
[COBY]:Right, Absolutely. So, I mean, if, you know, if this is something that you want to learn a little bit more about, beak clearly there, we've got a number of episodes we've talked about kind of job dissatisfaction. I think there s episode in our first season called Is why Is Job Dissatisfaction so Dangerous? And we talk, we really get into competitive, sufficient, equitable and what we call the seven by three rule. In that episode, that might be a great place for you to just check out if this is something that's of interest. I know you've got this Walmart, thing you want to talk about.
[JAMES]:Yeah, I touch it on it open.
[COBY]:Yeah, I want. Because I thought that might derail us. I want to open the floor up to you and tee it up to you. go ahead now, James.
[JAMES]:Okay, so let's review a few statistics, that we've already talked about. this is going to focus on, primarily U.S. statistics. So, approximately 50, percent of the users, of food banks in the United States are employed. That accounts for around 25 million people, approximately 9 million, people who are enrolled in the SNAP program, are employed, wage earners is the language that they use. And 51% of those work full time year round. we're gonna look at 2018 because we couldn't find real. We wanted actual numbers and statistics and data to talk about. And post Covid data hasn't been readily available and reliable.
[COBY]:Well, the other thing too is that we all know since COVID things have gotten so much worse around food insecurity. So some of you, some people might be saying, well guys, you're talking about food security. Post Covid, we all know it was. It's been an awful situation. But I mean it wasn't always that way.
[JAMES]:Well, it was always that way. Let's take 2018 was considered a pretty like from an economic standpoint, the US Economy had a very healthy, the GDP went up like it was a good economic year. all not all around because not everybody benefits from the fruits of that equally. But that's an entirely separate, rant. But in 2018, in a survey from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union claimed that 30% of Walmart employees really relied on public assistance, including food banks, to make ends meet.
[COBY]:30%?
[JAMES]:30%. Now that could be an overestimate. Let's be generous and say it was 20%.
[COBY]:Sure.
[JAMES]:Right. Maybe you don't trust that labor, ah, union is going to report the facts in the same way that another agency, whatever, doesn't matter. A large number, a large portion of Walmart workers, rely on these programs in 2018, Walmart s net income, so their, their actual profit was about $10 billion. But not only did Walmart M make a profit of $10 billion, their payout to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks was an additional $14 billion. So you have a healthy and strong economy with one of the largest employers in the country paying wages that require their workers up to 30% of their workers to access charities to support their food, security and government programs which costs taxpayer money to, in order to survive, while at the same time they are posting a profit and a dividend and share buybacks to the tune of $24 billion in that single year. This is how food banks are subsidizing large businesses.
[COBY]:Yeah. And it's one of those things where it's a very stark reality that again, this was just a year that.
[JAMES]:That was just 2018.
[COBY]:Yeah. And that was just the one year that the study was done. It's logical to anyone with half a brain to know that that wasn't, you know, the one year that it happened.
[JAMES]:This is exceptionally unlikely that that was an outlier.
[COBY]:Exactly. So this is kind of a standard. While companies are making ridiculous amounts of money which they're allowed to do, we.
[JAMES]:Are all, all businesses are in, we are in business to make money. There's nothing wrong with making money. Yes, but there is something wrong in making money by exploiting people or by.
[COBY]:Expecting these charities and these government programs to make up for the lack of money that you're paying your employees because you need them to be reliable. You like, well, we don't have to pay them all that much money because that's what food banks are for is maddening.
[JAMES]:Yes, it is. And the problem is, as this makes me, obviously, I have difficulty hiding that. This makes me a little irritate, perturbed, sure. Slightly vexed. But it's not a simple answer, right? No, there's not a magic wand that we can wave that says that unless there's A significant change in political will. that's the only way that these types of changes are going to happen. what we the point of this episode, even though it's fun for me to rant, it's one of my favorite pastimes, the point of this episode is not to make people mad at Walmart or mad at the Mu and Pop Shop, mad at the people who are accessing these programs. That is not the intent of what we wanted to do. What we want to do is highlight how critically important, what a crucial fundamental role that food banks play in our communities. In every community with people that we know, whether you know it or not, your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, people you know are accessing the food banks. And it's not a negative stigma on them. It's about we all need help sometimes and the need is great and it's only getting greater. So if you can support your local food bank with food donations with, if you're able to, A, a small monthly, recurring donation to a local food bank could be a massive boost for them to provide them with a little bit of consistency in what they're able to receive. But do what you are able to do, what you're comfortable with. But if you're able to do something, we ask that you look at supporting.
[COBY]:Your local food banks and again, just be aware of that. Their, they are a vital role to the people that you run into on a daily basis largely. It's safe to say that probably one in three we're going to round up a little bit of the people that you run into in large retail jobs or stuff that we know are kind of lower paying jobs. It's a reality that maybe one in three of them maybe accessing the food bank, the people that are packing up your groceries, the people that are carrying stuff out to your car, people that are ringing in your stuff, people who.
[JAMES]:Are working full time, who have, they are employed. They have, they have chosen to make put in the effort. They work full time and they still need the, the little bit of support to ensure that they and their families can survive.
[COBY]:And let's be clear, the same people that were deemed essential workers during, during the COVID days are you know, is likely that up to one in three, maybe we're maybe we'll round down a little bit and say one in four are probably requiring food banks as part of their monthly survival program. So we really encourage you to give local support your local food bank. Again, we want to remind you of the lesser known facts about you know, if you can avoid the busier seasons or on holidays when they're a little more overwhelmed.
[JAMES]:But if you have to select when to.
[COBY]:Right.
[JAMES]:when to give, if you have the flexibility.
[COBY]:Yeah the non busy months which are would tend to be outside of the holidays are probably the best is absolutely still there and the most convenient time for the food banks. Again, don't buy the pre bag donations from the supermarkets, support them directly yourself. Yeah, and again don't you know, don't buy those like you know, here's a bag that you can just buy and drop off to the food bank yourself. But you know, you don't know what's in there. Food banks are pretty good about publicizing on their social media or what they're looking for. So if you're not too sure what to give them food wise, you just have to ask them, ask.
[JAMES]:They would love to tell you.
[COBY]:Absolutely. And they would say please share this list with anyone that you know. but it's always better to give cash donations because again the food banks use that money to purchase the healthy foods throughout the year. and also consider volunteering. Right. It could be a family event that you do, it could be a weekly thing that you try and do to give back. It could be something that will have such a huge impact on your friends, on your neighbors, on your family. So there is again there's no bad way to directly support your local food bank.
[JAMES]:And if you are someone who wants to help influence policy, influence advocacy, influence research around food insecurity, remember that there are national agencies that are dedicated to that, that do great work and could use your support as well.
[COBY]:Right. And that's Food Banks Canada and Canada and Feeding America in America.
[JAMES]:So and what was the name.
[COBY]:Oh, the Trussell Trust.
[JAMES]:Trussell Trust.
[COBY]:Yeah but honestly like we tried to find if there were, you know, what countries didn't have food banks and we didn't find, I couldn't find a single country that didn't have pretty significant food bank. Kind of like you know, need and system that's there. So if you are listening to this on the planet Earth, then chances are yes that you, you can support a local food bank and, or you can you could give to a national one to again support advocacy and research and whatever. So I think we're pretty much done with this conversation. I want to thank Podcast Law for encouraging us to kind of shed our normal, our normal format and to dedicate an episode to a charity that we think is important. I think our passion for supporting local and local food banks might have come out along, you know, may have been masked by James's rage a bit.
[JAMES]:the rage and passion go hand in hand.
[COBY]:There you go. But, yeah, so again, consider checking out other podcast on, podcasts. Learn about other great charities, that you can support. Again, you can find them, at podcasthon.org, if you see our social media kind of promoting this episode and podcaston.org, please share it with other people, because this is a great way for people to learn more about things that they didn't know that are having a huge impact on the world around them. And we're just happy that we were a part of it.
[JAMES]:Cool.
[COBY]:All right, so that about does it for us. So for a full archive of our podcast and access to the video version hosted on our YouTube channel, visit Roman3ca/podcast.
[ANNOUCNER]:for more information on topics like these, don't forget to visit us at Roman3ca. Side effects of this podcast may include improved retention, high productivity, increased market share, employees breaking out in spontaneous dance, dry mouth, a version of the Sound of James' voice des Sory to find a better podcast...
