A window into a world of need

When an economist and her three children gave up their lifestyle to live on a welfare budget for 40 days, they did not bargain for what they would find out.

"Every year, my family gives up something for Lent. This year, we sacrificed our lifestyle to live on a welfare budget for the 40-day period before Easter. This is what we learned:

"Welfare today isolates people. It makes poverty in our midst invisible, a situation that nearly 700,000 people on social assistance in Ontario today can attest to."

"And while my family became invisible for a while, the discomfiting truth is that Lent is temporary; poverty often is not."