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Looking For a New or Preâ€"=wned BMW mployees at Northern Digital Inc. in E:Valerloo showed "no fear" when they icked their spring food drive into gear Monday. In an event built around the hit TV show Fear Factor, seven teams of employâ€" ees chugged blended concoctions made up of tofu, sardines, baked beans, coffee, apple sauce and chocolate covered insects. For the next three days, the teams conâ€" tinue to compete to outweigh one another with food donations to the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. At the same time, the collective NDI team is competing against neighbouring businesses in the second annual Block Challenge to see which business can raise the most food. Competing against NDI for the Block Challenge trophy are Avvida Systems. Union Gas, Agile Systems Inc., Kapparel, Commercial Moving Systems, NCR, Onward Manufacturing and Elmira Poultry. www.bâ€"kmotors.com The events helped set the tone for the really want to be your dry Repairs & alterations Wedding gowns Solventâ€"free cleaning local food bank‘s annual Spring Food Drive, which gets underway April 14 and continues through April 27. Organizers are hoping to encourage 240 businesses, community groups, church organizations and schools to launch food drives to help restock the food bank‘s sheives when need is greater than ever. "It‘s been a long, cold winter, said Fred Lehmann, the food bank‘s public relations officer. "And it‘s been a challenge for a lot of families and individuals to pay increasing utility bills and find affordable housing. Our challenge is to help them put food on the table. "We want to provide a measure of hope. That‘s the theme this year â€" give food, give Those interested in organizing workâ€" place or community food drives may contact Dayna Giorgio at the food bank, 743â€"5576, ext. 230. PAGE 3 Social assistance recipients getting lost in intimidating system, audit determines communityâ€"based Alsocial audit looking at local families and indiâ€" viduals receiving government assistance or disability payâ€" ments found that insecure income and poor housing choices are keeping them in a constant state of chaos and The study was conducted in 10 locations throughout Ontario between March 20 and April 4 by the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition, made up of reliâ€" gious and community leaders from different faith groups. The group visited Waterloo region last week and found that social consequences of policy and â€" regulation changes by the provincial and federal government have had the same adverse effects around the province. Local government and nonâ€"profit organizations like the House of Friendship, which participated in the study, are hardâ€"pressed to fill the gaps left by federal and provincial cutâ€"backs. And what government help there is out there comes with strings attached, or with obstacies in place that make it more difficult for recipients to have the sense of security they need to get their lives in "Picture yourself in a cold snowy day in Ontario in a phone booth answering 40 minutes of questions to get on to Ontario Works," said Brice Balmer, who participatâ€" ed in the study on behalf of House of Friendship. "If you House of Friendship. II you get frustrated, you dorflré?re the information or you‘re so anxious that you have to hang up, it‘s marked application So in addition to the stigâ€" ma that goes with applying for government help, the help isn‘t very easy to get anymore, with most contact coming over the phone and with difâ€" ferent individuals each time. The call centre approach By Bos VRrBaNAC _ Chronicle Staff | never allows people in need to get comfortable with the process, and many end up dropping right out instead of getting benefits they‘re entiâ€" tled to. That means local organiâ€" zations like House of Friendâ€" ship and the Food Bank of Waterloo Region are seeing more people coming to their doors with no income at all. The decline in the welfare roles has also failed to transâ€" late into any greater support for these social agencies. "The social agencies don‘t have a lot of the money they used to have, but they are being asked to do a lot more of the work that the welfare social workers used to do," said Balmer, with audit parâ€" ticipants, including social workers, speaking out about the changes they‘ve seen. "For instance with our food hamper program we see a lot of people who need help in ‘There‘s no way anyâ€" body is close enough in Ontario Works or Outario Disability to come up with a plan to break the cycie of "We‘re having to help peoâ€" ple with things that used to be handled by social workâ€" Because of the lack of havâ€" ing someone familiar with their situation helping them out, a lot of these social assisâ€" tance reciplents are reporting they constantly experiencing "audit anxiety" because they never know when a letter of suspension will be received. Those letters come with any change in their situation regardless of whether it is temporary or, even worse, a "You need to develop a plan with a person," said Balmer. "There‘s no way anyâ€" body is close enough in House of Friendship 345 Erb St. W 746â€"2570 240 King St. N. _ 885â€"2170 55 Northfield Dr. â€" 885â€"3230 Tailors located at Lauretwood Plaza 886â€"9920 207 King St. S. _ 744â€"1107 (_ Newiex Ontario Works or Ontario Disability to come up with a plan to break the cycle of While governments at the upper levels pay lip service to breaking that cycle of depenâ€" dency, the policies and reguâ€" lations they have in place are in fact making the situation worse, the audit determined. "For instance when peoâ€" ple tried to get employment, the transition to work isn‘t there," said Balmer. "If you‘re a mom with two or three kids and want to get a job that makes the same amount as what you were making on Ontario Works, there are no medical benefits. "So you really have to think about whether you want to do this. If you‘re a mom with a kid with an emoâ€" tional or physical challenge, you have to wonder if you could afford additional medâ€" ical benefits no matter how minimal the government benefits you have are." "The problem is that those people don‘t have the whereâ€" withal initially to go out and get a job, and now you want them to go out and get a job without any help," said Balmer. "It‘s just impossible." Balmer said the current ideology is that if you make it hard enough for people to get benefits, they‘ll get off the sysâ€" tem and they‘ll go out and get ajob. The audit came up with five recommendations which imum wage; creating safe, affordable housing; creating adequate income for all social assistance recipients; assistâ€" ing those recipients with the transition to employment; and having more fiexible supâ€" ports for parents and chilâ€" dren, especially those in the child protection system. "Typical audits look at the fiscal issues but they miss the social issues," said Balmer about the interfaith coalition‘s audit. "They (the province) missed the social conseâ€" quences when they talked about the how the welfare numbers have decreased." 135 Ottawa St. S. 744â€"4411 3101 Kingsway Dr. 894â€"2070 Forest Glen Plaza 7421641 460 Frederick 743â€"7511 450 Westheights Dr. 578â€"5940