Visit the Welfare Food Challenge blog to read about participants’ experiences, and visit Raise the Rates to stay up to date on our current work.

To Welfare Food Challenge participants and supporters:

Thank you for following the Welfare Food Challenge. Raise the Rates asks you now to please take action to push the politicians of BC to tackle poverty in BC with a clear anti-poverty plan that raises welfare rates and the minimum wage. Having spent a week on the poverty diet you are the best people to speak to the politicians and to ask your friends, family and colleagues to take action as well. The full list of points for Raise the Rates’ anti-poverty plan is at: raisetherates.org/take-action

Take Action. Here are some ideas:

This week: Yourself

Write a personal letter to Christy Clark (Premier) (West Annex, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4) and Adrian Dix (Leader of Opposition) (Room 201, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4) telling about your week on a poverty diet and how they need to act. Maybe include a Band-aid and say no more Band-Aid solutions and a photograph of a meal.

Do yourself and ask all your friends on facebook, e-mail lists, etc to

• E-mail Christy Clark: premier@gov.bc.ca  and Adrian Dix: adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca saying take action Raise the Rates and end poverty
• Post to the Facebook pages of Christy Clark: http://www.facebook.com/ChristyClarkForBC and Adrian Dix: http://www.facebook.com/adrian.dix1

Yourself in next 2 weeks

• Visit your own MLA and tell them about your experiences of a week of a poverty diet. (Find your MLA’s office at: http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm)
• Get an organization you are a member of to pass a resolution (community group, faith group, union, etc). A draft resolution is available on the website: http://welfarefoodchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/resolution1.pdf
• You can also share how they respond on the website or Facebook.

Raise the Rates would be interesting in hearing from you about your letters and how the politicians respond. You can also help Raise the Rates in future campaigns. Contact Raise the Rates at: bill50@vcn.bc.ca

Together we can make a difference to end poverty in BC.