Food Banks Mississauga Hosting Mississauga By-Election Mayoral Debate on May 23, 2024
In collaboration with CityNews
Food Banks Mississauga is hosting a Mississauga by-election mayoral debate on Thursday, May 23, 2024, at their facility from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The debate will be moderated by CityNews Senior Journalist, Mark McAllister, and live-streamed by CityNews. The four candidates participating in the debate are Alvin Tedjo, Dipika Damerla, Stephen Dasko, and Brian Crombie.
The criteria for participation is inviting mayoral candidates with a platform on poverty alleviation and who received a minimum level of 5% support as determined by voting intention in polls conducted as of May 6, 2024.
As the largest poverty relief organization in Mississauga focused on relieving food insecurity, Food Banks Mississauga is hosting this debate to ensure that poverty alleviation, including income and housing security, and food security, are key platform issues for mayoral candidates.
“This upcoming by-election is an important one for the city of Mississauga. We’ve only had two mayors in the past 45 years, and our upcoming debate will give residents a chance to hear directly from candidates on their plans to alleviate food insecurity and poverty in our city as they prepare to head to the polls. These are issues that we and our network of over 65 agency members see our community struggling with every day, and it is only getting worse,” says Meghan Nicholls, CEO of Food Banks Mississauga.
“We are projecting that 8% of the city’s population will turn to a food bank by the end of this month and our new mayor needs to prioritize initiatives to support them. In the last ten months, we served over 53,000 food bank clients – a 62% increase compared to last year. As food insecurity continues to rise at alarming rates, the debate is a chance for the public to ask candidates how they will tackle the systemic social and economic challenges facing our city.”
Mississauga residents are invited to attend the debate on May 23, 2024, in person or virtually and can RSVP, submit their questions and find all the details here. Final questions are being curated by Food Banks Mississauga and CityNews Senior Journalist, Mark McAllister, to ensure coverage of the relevant issues.
