By Pepper Parr
September 17th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The Burlington Community Foundation presented its Vital Statistics report Tuesday morning to a room at the Art Gallery that was well attended.
The usual mention of the MP and the Mayor were made and then a panel discussion that included Joann Battaglis of First Ontario Credit Union; Garner Becket with the Conservation Halton Foundation, Christina Mulder, Director Burlington Food Bank and Catherine Villasenor of Home Suite Home. took place.
The most authentic panellist was Mulder, who was really blunt when she pointed out that the current rate of customer growth at the Food Bank is not sustainable.
In 2019 the Foodbank served 1985 people – in 2022 they served 3517. Since then, growth has exceeded 34% annually.
The panel was followed by having the people at the 15 or so tables in the room discuss what they had heard from the panel. The word “intersectionality” popped up a number of times – that one didn’t resonate with me.
The actual report was never presented – except for one page that gave grades (A, B, C or D) to different subjects that were mentioned in the report that was available online.
The data was solid, the people who did some of the research were more than credible. The number of responders to the survey work was on the low side – in the 250 range.
There were people in the room from various organizations that had well grounded understandings of what the issues were and the size of the challenges the city faces who didn’t get much in the way of an opportunity to speak to the room. Unfortunate.
The date and the range of people that were interviewed:
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