I want to join a union.

No, not one of the traditional unions like the Canadian Auto Workers, who were recruiting among United Church ministers a while back. The union I want to join is The Union of Food Bank and Emergency Meal Program Volunteers. Sponsored by the York Region Food Network, they have a great web site at www.freedom90.ca. Check it out.

The UFBEMPV (now doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?) has no union dues. As volunteers at food banks and emergency meal programs, members have already paid their dues.

Some have paid over and over again. According to the UFBEMPV, Jean Stinson cooked and handed out sandwiches at Metropolitan United Church in Toronto during the Great Depression in the 1930's. In 2005, at the age of 89, she was still volunteering in the emergency meal program at the very same church.

Alf Judd, of the Georgina Community Food Pantry, started volunteering in a food bank in 1990, thinking it might last a few years. 22 years later he is still working in the same job. He wants to retire. He can’t.

The UFBEMPV has just three demands. Directed at the government, they demand to be laid off. They demand that the government ensure that social assistance and minimum wage levels be sufficient for everyone to have adequate housing and to buy their own food.

The second demand is to have the government institute mandatory retirement by the age of 90. Many union members have been volunteering for more than twenty years. They are tired and angry. They demand the government take action to end poverty and make food banks and emergency meal programs obsolete.

Finally, the UFBEMPV demands that the government either freeze their wages or double them. It doesn’t matter, because they are unpaid volunteers.

I think those are demands every political party could get behind. The demand to be laid off, retire at age 90 and a wage freeze are things common to all political parties platforms in Ontario.

Even more attractive is the idea that it might save money. If you provide reasonable entitlements, you can then get rid of reliance on a costly, labour intensive, highly inefficient and unsustainable emergency food system.

What food banks try to address is a gap in society. The gap is addressed through charity. The problem is that is not meant to address systemic issues. Charity is intended to address temporary, interim situation. It is a bridge, not a superhighway.

Government would love to have charities and volunteers take care of the hungry. That way it costs the government nothing. Charity is not a reliable way of funding anything. It is sporadic, irregular and unpredictable. It depends on generosity, which is not a natural state of the human heart.

What government is forgetting is that the largest number of volunteers come from faith communities. And faith communities are shrinking. Shrink the number of volunteers and you end up with no service.

Perhaps the best comment should be from the volunteers themselves. The Sudbury Food Network volunteers have come up with a song called (with apologies to Paul Simon) "Fifty Ways to Close the Food Banks".

You, just raise the rates, Nate,

Build new homes, Joan,

Create equity for all, Paul,

And end Poverty.

Lower fares on the bus, Gus,

We don’t need to discuss much

Cut all the stupid rules, Jewel,

And set us all free.

And wouldn’t that be great?

Rev. David Shearman is the minister of Central Westside United Church, Owen Sound and host of Faithworks on Rogers TV - Grey County