Lawyers Feed the Hungry
Lawyers Feed the Hungry is a Toronto based year-round program which provides downtown community residents with hot, healthy meals since 1998. The meals are served three times a week in the Law Society of Upper Canada’s cafeteria located inside Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto. This National Historic Site of Canada also houses the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. A team of committed volunteers control the food operations from both inside the kitchen, and outside while supervising distribution. This tight-knit group includes law students, lawyers, high school students, City of Toronto employees, a cross-section of Toronto’s legal community, and one ‘Humber Journalism student’ who plans to return during the holidays. Toronto officials have recently announced the results of a census that counted 5,052 homeless people living on the streets and in shelters across the city. Over 818 of those homeless are living on the streets, with a growing amount of 575 in the downtown core. Due to these facts alone, it is absolutely necessary for Toronto and cities like it to have such programs as ‘Lawyers Feed the Hungry’ to help ensure the health and safety of citizens who might find themselves under hard times, homelessness, and/or struggling with hunger.
A man by the name of Emile Durkheim known to most as the ‘Father of Sociology’ believed in the ‘structural-functionalist’ perspective. He stated the breakdown of social order as a result of the loss of standards and values, or ‘normlessness,’ can be described as his signature term, ‘anomie.’ ‘Structural-functionalism’ accepts that a certain amount of deviance, crime and poverty is “normal” and functional to society. Durkheim also believed that rapid social change causes crime. Looking at our current economy and considering the low value of a dollar compared to the current minimum wage it is easy to see how entire communities of citizens fall onto the lowest end of ‘the middle-class measuring rod.’ This term, coined by Albert K. Cohen is used to describe a school system that favoured middle-class dress, mannerisms, and etiquette. Cohen argued that lower-class boys were often unable to meet these standards.
To quote the great historian John Rawls, majority of the general public would agree that “poverty and homelessness is caused by lack of equal distribution of society’s goods and services among the individuals and groups that constitute society.” To further Rawls’ point, fair distribution is most important among the lower of the classes where equal opportunity is less visible to the average person. Rawls pondered the same question as the early Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.E.) arguing:
If inequalities should occur, they must be a product of individual inabilities rather than systematic discrimination.
If inequalities must occur, society should favour the least advantaged.
Rawls argued that in a free and democratic society the state is responsible for creating the conditions of equality in which citizens react.
Rawls also created the heuristic device known as the ‘the veil of ignorance.’ Society would function under the pretense that citizens were simply ignorant to self-indifference. He stated, and concluded that based on the ignorance test, “the three principles necessary to ensure the just distribution of goods and benefits are Greatest Equal Liberty Principle, Equal Opportunity Principle, and ‘Difference Principle.”
As to its worth to Toronto and cities like it, ‘Lawyers Feed the Hungry’ has a price tag that most would mark as priceless. During a field trip to Osgoode Hall I was witness to approximately 400 citizens lined up and in need of a warm meal. When it was all over no one was left hungry and when necessary extra food was quickly prepared. Within the matter of two hours I had seen a man with no shoe, no socks, and ripped pants request a vegetarian dinner, an argument between ‘guests’ over line positioning, and a mix of hundreds of people who either ate-in, or left with take-out. Considering the relative low-cost of production the smiling citizens I had witnessed made the meals worth every penny.
The likes of Emile Durkheim, Albert K Cohen, and John Rawls would all concur as to the necessity of such programs as ‘Lawyers Feed the Hungry’ for Toronto and cities like it to help ensure the health and safety of citizens who might find themselves under hard times, homelessness, and/or struggling with hunger. Approximately half of the 575 homeless citizens in the downtown area are currently participating. Thanks to the generous donations from The Law Society Foundation and the work of many committed volunteers this has become the most popular meal program in Toronto and resulted in 100,000 healthy, nutritious meals served year round. The facts are positive, thus leading me to conclude that it is an effective program and should be continued and expanded.
SOURCES / WORKS CITED
APA Format
Lawyers Feed the Hungry – Toronto. (2013) Web. September 15. 2013. Retrieved from
http://www.lawyersfeedthehungry.ca/toronto.html
Wikipedia. (2013) “Osgoode Hall.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, September 15. 2013. Retrieved from
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osgoode_Hall
Gazette. (2012) “The Gift of A Good Meal.” The Law Society of Upper Canada.
September 15. 2013. Retrieved from
http://www.lawsocietygazette.ca/news/the-gift-of-a-good-meal/
CBC. (2013) “Homeless Survey.” Survey Counts 5,052 Homeless in Toronto. Sepptember 15.2013. Retrieved from
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/survey-counts-5-052-homeless-in-toronto-1.574354
YouTube. (2013) “ANTHISTLE Lawyers Feed the Hungry.” CTV Broadcast. September 15. 2013. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxY0FISc4
