Greater Vancouver Food Bank’s “guideline” on international students faces criticism
The guideline that limits first year international students from accessing food aid will remain in place.
By KORALEE NICKARZ
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank says it will continue to follow a controversial “guideline” to not serve international students unless they have been in Canada for over a year.
According to CEO David Long, the Vancouver food bank’s guideline was created in response to a “massive influx of international students” as well as social media posts and videos suggesting that food banks were a source of free food.
Describing the guideline as not a “hard fast policy,” Long said that there is some flexibility to ensure they help students facing food insecurity.
“Our mandate is for people in need.” said Long, “If you’re coming to Canada as an international student, it’s great, if you have money in the bank, you don’t really fit our criteria.”
The federal government requires international students to have $20,635 in available funds to study in Canada, which amounts to $1,719.58 per month over the course of one year.
“When they come to Vancouver in particular, I know that doesn’t work,” said Long, adding that, in spite of the policy, no international student who needs real help will be or has been turned away by the Vancouver food bank.
Students have a right to food
Graham Riches, a former University of British Columbia professor and author of the book Food Bank Nations: Poverty, Corporate Charity and the Right Food, said he disagrees with the Vancouver food bank policy.
“International students are human beings and there’s a moral imperative to feed hungry people; and if a charity denies that it is in violation of… its own code of conduct, its own code of ethics,” he said.
Systematic Maltreatment
Rowan Burdge, provincial director of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition said the framing of international students as taking advantage of support is “extremely xenophobic and hypocritical.”
A 2023 report published by the BC federation of Students identifies a harmful stereotype that international students come from wealthy families and thus have endless financial means.
The report called the stereotype “nothing more than a thinly veiled justification – with racist undertones – of the systematic and institutional maltreatment international students face.”
