The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

17 | Thursday, September 29, 2016 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Growing up poor Child poverty in Ontario | Metroland Media Growing up poor Jonathan Zettel Reka Szekely Todd Vandonk Melinda Cheevers Child poverty in Ontario Growing Up Poor: Child Poverty in Ontario is a Metroland Media Special Investigative Series, a four-part project, that explores the critical mass of children living in poverty across Ontario and the critical need for change. Many children in Canada -- across Ontario -- are growing up poor. Hundreds of breakfast programs at schools across the province are proof, but they are a short-term answer, not a solution. They do offer a glimpse into the problem of child poverty and where solutions could be found. This four-part Metroland Special Investigative Series spotlights child poverty -- and looks behind it -- to reveal problems in order to identify solutions. While Toronto -- child poverty capital of Canada -- has embarked on a Poverty Reduction Strategy... what about the rest of the province? This report looks outside of T.O., from the tourist hotspot of Niagara Falls and wealthy 'burbs like Oakville, to Owen Sound and Oshawa. While statistics vary, they remain shocking. Many -- too many -- kids in Ontario are growing up poor. Why? How do we fix it? Hundreds of thousands of Canadian children are growing up in poverty. In Ontario, more than 370,000 children (or 13.8 percent) lived in a low-income household in 2013, only slightly better than the national average of 14.3 per cent. Studies suggest poverty limits a child's future. It often means food insecurity, an inability to fully participate at school, a lack of positive activities and difficulty accessing services such as eye and dental care, even post-secondary education. According to UNICEF , the child poverty rate for industrial countries ranges from five per cent in Iceland to 25 per cent in Romania. Canada ranks in the middle. In 1989, the federal government vowed to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000, yet little progress has been made. Critics of nutrition programs -- are they kidding? by Jonathan Zettel Metroland Media Angela is a mother of three. As a child, she grew up in poverty and was determined to make her life better come adulthood. In Owen Sound Angela lives in Owen Sound. In 2009, she owned a construction business with her husband, who, one night, after consuming 10 bottles of beer, beat her and then drank five more beers before police came. "I had no idea he was an alcoholic," she said during a phone interview. "Looking back, I feel so stupid -- how could I not know?" Her dream of escaping the stressful and demeaning cycle of poverty would not be realized. Angela, who agreed to speak to us anonymously, said she never expected to wind up with "three kids on the street, basically looking for the kindness of strangers to help me out." The local women's shelter had a policy not to allow boys over 12 to be admitted and Angela's oldest boy was 15. That night, in the Emergency Room, with nowhere else to go, a nurse offered her a basement apartment. Since then, Angela and her three children have come face-to-face with poverty and have learned first-hand how it undermines precious opportunities to rebuild. On top of not having money for a car, telephone, or food, Angela said a whole host of mental and health concerns began to affect her children. Stress, anger, anxiety and a sense of isolation, coupled with the poor-quality, processed, high-carbohydrate diet provided by food banks led to asthma, stomach problems and low immunity amongst the children. "I couldn't figure out why they were sick all the time," she said, adding that because the children were ill, she would be called away from work frequently, which made it hard to hold down a job. Each of Angela's three children struggled with school and missed out on school trips and extra-curricular activities because even $5 for pizza day was out of reach. Housing was also a problem and the family has moved frequently. In one instance, Angela asked her landlord if he could supply her with a letter of residence so that she could apply for social assistance -- instead he gave her an eviction notice because he didn't want "that type of people living there." She said she would try, each time they moved, to keep the new place along the kids' bus routes, so that, at the very least, they would feel a sense of stability and routine. And, although she gave her best efforts to shield her children from what was going on, each, in their own way, knew. For one month, Angela's oldest son hid in his room beneath a makeshift tent. "He would pretend that he wasn't hungry to save food for the younger ones," she said. On the frontlines in Halton Lesley Mansfield is the executive director of the Halton Learning Foundation, one of the many on the ground, fighting child poverty in Ontario. She works directly with the Halton Board of Education, which has 60,000 students in 102 schools, 10 per cent of whom are at or below the poverty line. Poverty remains hidden While Halton is among the more affluent regions in Ontario and home to several corporate headquarters that call its municipalities, Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills home, Mansfield said the poverty level is unbelievable and, on many levels, remains hidden.