When everything is essential, what do you go without?

By Peggy Mocarquer , Director of Community Impact at WINS.

Autumn has arrived. For many Calgarians, that means planning a Thanksgiving meal around the kitchen table.

Now picture a different kitchen table in Calgary. On it sits a grocery list, a late-rent notice, an expired bus pass, a reminder that the children need warm coats and boots, and a childcare invoice. The monthly budget cannot cover everything. Something has to wait. But what? How do you choose?

For many women and their families, this is what poverty can look like: essential needs arising at the same time, with too little money to meet them all. And poverty does not stop at the pocketbook.

Oct. 17 is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, a reminder that poverty is about more than income. It can affect stability, participation, dignity, belonging and hope.

At WINS, we see this reality every day. Since the beginning of 2026, 6,200 women have already turned to our House to Home program for clothing, furniture and household essentials at no cost. Behind that number are needs: a mother who finally has a home but still needs beds for her children, a woman starting a new job without transportation or appropriate work clothing, or a family reaching the middle of the month with little food left.

The emotional toll can be just as significant. Constant uncertainty creates stress and exhaustion. It can affect a person’s sense of stability, dignity and hope.

We are seeing some pressures intensify. Since July, the number of emergency food hampers WINS provided to women experiencing housing instability was roughly double January to June levels. That does not prove one pressure causes another, but it shows how often needs overlap.

The broader numbers reinforce what we see firsthand. In 2024, the City of Calgary estimated more than 211,000 residents were living on low incomes. Housing shows how quickly financial breathing room can disappear. In 2025, the average rent for a two-bedroom home in Calgary was $1,914 a month.

Food insecurity tells another part of the story: nearly half of women-led, lone-parent families experience food insecurity, and Statistics Canada has found 40 per cent of single mothers living above the official poverty line still experience it. Being above the poverty line does not necessarily mean being secure.

Employment can be a powerful pathway to greater stability. But starting and sustaining work can still depend on transportation, childcare, clothing and other supports. A new job can be a turning point, while stability takes time to build.

Charities’ role is to create breathing room and help women move forward. That may mean providing essential goods, connecting someone to services, or helping her prepare for employment and greater financial stability. Just as importantly, it means creating a place where someone is heard and does not have to carry everything alone.

No sector can solve poverty alone. Meaningful progress requires thoughtful public policy, employers who understand the realities facing their workforce, community organizations responding on the ground, and donors and neighbours who care about the broader community.

This October, many issues will compete for our attention. But around kitchen tables across Calgary, some families will continue to do the same math: rent, groceries, transportation and childcare. For them, poverty is not a policy discussion. It is the reality they wake up to every day.

As Thanksgiving approaches, perhaps the question is not only what we are grateful to have on our own tables. It is what each of us is prepared to do so fewer families are forced to leave something essential off theirs.

Poverty costs more than money. Addressing it will take all of us.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/3UbcslE

Follow WINS' Poverty Awareness Campaign: https://bit.ly/4deYTIe