{"id":20720,"date":"2018-08-21T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T20:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/travailleurs-pauvres-ken\/"},"modified":"2021-03-19T15:58:21","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T19:58:21","slug":"working-poor-ken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/blog\/working-poor-ken\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the phrase \u201cthe working poor\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I honestly don\u2019t know where my children and I would have been if it hadn\u2019t been for Centraide.
I was making $8.25 an hour, which worked out to just $1,000 per month. Rent at the time was $500 and change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI grew up in Canada and was able to take advantage of the opportunity that provided me. I went to school, got a post-secondary education, worked and had a family. I thought I did all of the right things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1989, my wife gave birth to our second child. I was a sales representative and moving up the corporate ladder. Everything was good. Then I came home one day and my wife said, \u2018Married life is not for me. So long.\u2019 This was a bit life-changing, but I had a good job and I wasn\u2019t worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the recession hit and I was laid off. I thought I\u2019d be able to find a job anywhere, but that didn\u2019t happen. I ended up getting a job pumping gas. I was making $8.25 an hour, which worked out to just $1,000 per month. Rent at the time was $500 and change. The rest went to babysitting. At the end of the month I would think: \u201cI\u2019ve paid the babysitting costs. I\u2019ve paid the rent. Now how do I feed and clothe these kids?\u201d I didn\u2019t have any money for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the baby was just over three months old, and the older one was a toddler. I felt like I was failing them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my neighbours took me down to a Centraide supported food bank. I had the kids with me, and I\u2019ll always remember that little red logo. I was able to feed my children. I could get clothing for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I honestly don\u2019t know where my children and I would have been if it hadn\u2019t been for Centraide. For the longest time, I never understood what the phrase \u201cthe working poor\u201d meant. I had always felt that these were people who didn\u2019t want to work. After being placed in that situation, I realized that\u2019s not always the case. The working poor are people, real people, who have to work two or three jobs because of circumstances that are beyond their control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once things turned around for me, I remembered that little red logo. I felt the need to give back, so donations come off my pay cheque on a weekly basis. And on top of my regular job, I own a small mobile entertainment company. Whenever Centraide needs my services\u2014if they\u2019re having an outdoor event or a fundraiser\u2014I\u2019m there. The money goes to people like me.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Ken <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I honestly don\u2019t know where my children and I would have been if it hadn\u2019t been for Centraide.I was making $8.25 an hour, which worked out to just $1,000 per month. Rent at the time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"358,815,922,634,1012,498","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[663],"tags":[],"content-type":[],"sector":[],"class_list":["post-20720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essential-needs"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 06:03:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25081,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20720\/revisions\/25081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20720"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=20720"},{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centraide-mtl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=20720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}