We are an alliance of health care providers who came together early in 2005 to participate in a campaign to prescribe extra funds to low income Ontarians living on social assistance through what came to be known as the "special diet campaign".
Throughout ten months in 2005, we participated in "special diet clinics" organized by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). Held in communities across Toronto, we assessed and documented social assistance recipients' health problems and their nutritional and health related risks. We then prescribed them a supplement to welfare to allow them to afford at least a minimally healthy diet. Despite the Ontario government's subsequent restriction of the benefit, we helped to put millions of dollars directly into the hands of thousands of low income Ontarians.
From the initial connections formed in that campaign, HPAP has grown into an organization with diverse activities and outreach. We continue to ally with antipoverty groups and people living in poverty to advocate for the eradication of poverty in Ontario. We also work in educating health providers about interventions into poverty, do research into such interventions, and work to develop systematic programs to decrease the poverty faced by our patients and the communities we work in.