By Kendall Worth!
I want to start off by letting all of you readers know that I did attend today’s annual Labour Day Event. Monday September 4th, 2023 (labour Day Monday) I advertised this event in this https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-upcoming-labour-day-event.html BLOG post. I just want to say that the Labour Day event was well attended. When we think of the change of season we think of things like the leaves changing colour for fall, and the weather getting cooler.
Within the community of people I advocate for through my blog, I notice people who are supplementing their incomes, with part time jobs connected to schools, feel that Labour Day is the most welcome holiday for them. You could also say for some welfare recipients the change of season means going back to work. Having the summers off is a nice feeling and has has advantages, however, in many situations, the summer can also be socially isolating. As this BLOG post points out the summer of 2023 came with:
Continued Inflation
Rents continuing to increase and landlords looking for ways to evict.
Homeless population continuing to increase.
Overall increased anxiety caused by dealing with all the above factors.
Even the middle class feeling the pinch caused by all of the above.
I have recently been in touch with people, who are also calling Labour Day a welcoming holiday, because it means they are starting something brand new that is going to give them structure in their day - such as starting a new job or going back to school. Change of season may improve how welfare recipients deal with social isolation, however, it does not improve the level of social isolation. Even with being back to work in September, weekends are still going to be socially isolated for many welfare recipients, as this blog post points out.
However, now we have got to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up. Both can be holidays where the bomb of social isolation can hit hard.
I recently published a short post thinking about Christmas in July. Christmas is a big deal and very major holiday, but the question does come up: what about Thanksgiving? I agree that Thanksgiving is another holiday where people should not be alone. However some Income Assistance recipients I have spoken to, both recently and in the past, tell me they do not feel as bad being socially isolated at Thanksgiving as they are at Christmas. Unlike the December holidays, Thanksgiving is just a long weekend and means those feelings of social isolation just last for like a day or two compared to Christmas. The one thing the Community of People I advocate for are worried about is what about holidays meals for 2023?
So within the past few days I went into the grocery store with a camera and took pictures of the prices of all the fixings for turkey dinners. Welfare recipients, and others on low income, are worried that, this year, Holiday Dinners, hosted by organizations, may not happen this year because of inflation. So, after adding up all the prices, I figured out it is going to cost an estimated $8997.00 for places like Souls Harbour, Hope Cottage, Brunswick Street, Etc to feed everyone – I estimated using 300 people living in poverty, walking through their doors. This estimated figure is a jump from what it would have cost in the past, and are making those living in poverty wonder how organizations are going to provide dinners this year.
I will end this article by saying that the sadness behind feeling socially isolated at Thanksgiving and Christmas is real and it feels like on those occasions one should be able to celebrate and their situation should not matter. For many of those I advocate for their families do want them coming around, or, in some cases, they do not have any family left.
I say, lets start finding resources for celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas now!
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