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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, October 6, 2016 | 18 | 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. Tackling `monster of poverty' in Niagara region by Melinda Cheevers Metroland Media If you're hungry, it can be hard to focus on pretty much anything else. Hunger can make learning and concentration difficult; cause visual disturbances, affect mood, focus and sense of physical wellbeing. It's no surprise then, in an area where poverty rates are high, including child poverty, the Niagara Nutrition Partners finds its program demand on the rise. The program is an initiative aimed at providing coordinated nutrition programs at schools across Niagara. Only real meal of the day... it breaks your heart "Sometimes, you'll catch the eye of a child and you know this will be the only real meal they'll have that day," said Anne Kirkpatrick, program manager. "And it breaks your heart." While the program is open to all students regardless of economic background, it was A region where child poverty rates are higher than the national average created to address the number of children going to school with nothing in their tummies. Started in 1998, it feeds 17,000 students, five days a week, through 200 programs in more than 120 schools across the region. Kirkpatrick says demand has grown. While there are lunch and snack programs offered, Kirkpatrick said breakfast is truly the heart of the program. Having a good meal in the morning can make a world of difference. Breakfast sets the tone "It's the first meal... it helps to set the tone," she said. "That's why it's so important." Made up of 12 different municipalities, Niagara has a population of 431,346. With its proximity to Toronto and easy access to the United States, the area once served as a manufacturing hub with bustling factories producing steel, car parts, farm equipment, to name a few. The closure of many plants resulted in high unemployment in the region. In January, the rate hovered around 8.2 per cent, compared to the provincial average of 7.1 per cent. Child poverty rate at 16.9 per cent The absence of high-paying manufacturing jobs, combined with the rising costs of living, means Niagara's poverty rate for working-age residents between 18 to 64 years is 13.5 per cent. When you look at the poverty rate for children, under age 18, that rate jumps to 16.9 per cent. For individual municipalities within the region, that number can be much higher. In St. Catharines, for example, the most populous city in the municipality, the rate is closer to 24 per cent, making it nearly one in four children in the city who are living in poverty. Niagara Falls, a major tourist destination, thanks to its iconic cataracts, has 5,350 children living in poverty, or 21.7 per cent. The data, recently released by Campaign 2000, maps out child poverty levels by federal riding using income tax data from 2013 provided by Statistics Canada, basing it on low income. Not all municipalities in Niagara fared poorly. Niagara West ­ Glanbrook riding, for example, sits below the national average with 2,830 children in poverty, or 9.9 per cent. "For us, when you look at all of the percentages, it's just a line in the sand. What we're really dealing with here is the fact that 21 per cent of kids in the province and 23 per cent of the kids in St. Catharines are living in poverty," said Glen Walker, chair of the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network. "Those numbers are huge. They're staggering. When you look at the big picture, we're talking thousands of kids."