Local supermarkets where I live have $2 food bank vouchers you can add to your bill.

As a kid, I was a borderline problem eater - extremely picky. I hated stringy textures (most raw veggies and celery of any kind), bitter tastes, and anything with a strong aftertaste to it (overcooked mushrooms come to mind especially). At its worst, I'd eat about 20 foods, and then only if they were of brands that I knew and prepared in ways I was familiar with.

A thing I will suggest: See if your child is willing to experiment with different methods of preparation. Some foods are milder tasting when cooked or raw, and some foods get weird aftertastes if they're even a little overcooked (broccoli, for example). Texture likewise changes with preparation method. It might be that your kid can stomach raw carrots if they're the really finely cut type that you can get from the supermarket, for example.

This is me talking about me, here, but when I was a kid, finding one way I could stand a new food became a gateway to trying different ways of preparing that food. After I got used to carrots finely julienned, for example, I started experimenting with them cut into sticks. And then slices. And then baby carrots. The whole process from initial discovery that I didn't mind carrots this way to them becoming one of my favorite foods took years, but it was progress. On the other hand, pressuring or forcing me to eat stuff I didn't like was counter-productive - I'd just end up hating it more. I still can't eat macaroni and cheese from those premade mixes, for example. I also can't stand celery.

As well, even as an adult (I'm still a picky eater, just not as picky as I used to be, mainly because now that I'm an adult, nobody gives me grief about whether or not I'm trying something new and I can approach new foods and food experiments in a zero-pressure environment rather than having everyone make a big spectacle about how my behind isn't leaving my seat until I have X more bites of some new thing that I hate), there are some foods that I can only eat cooked a certain way - frex: I'll only eat mushrooms that are raw or lightly sauteed. Mushrooms that are fried or overcooked at all. I will only eat celery that's pureed and in a soup. I will eat diced tomatoes if all the inside seed slime has been washed off, but only then. Etc. People sometimes tease me about how particular I am about my food preparation, but whatever. I'm eating with more variety than having X for breakfast, Y for lunch and Z for supper every day for a month.

On the legal front: I am no lawyer, but as a layperson I think a convincing argument could be made that the lack of Medicare funding combined with the fact that I'm not sure it would be possible to get a non-funded abortion performed anywhere in the province anymore, it is a de facto legal restriction on abortion. I don't know if that would affect the legal ruling, though. Any lawyers want to comment on this? Seems to me that if you say "It's only legal to do abortions in liscensed locations." plus "We've arranged things such that liscenced locations will only do insured abortions" plus "We'll only insure abortions if these conditions are met," that means effectively "You can only get a legal abortion if these conditions are met," even if the law doesn't explicitly say that anywhere.

If folks after reading this want to give money to an autism charity for April, I strongly recommend either the Autistic Self Advocacy Network or the Autism Women's Network. Both are run by autistic people, for autistic people, and prioritize the voices of autistic people in making policy and funding decisions, unlike most of the higher-profile autism charities.

And if you want to maintain your not-being-a-jerk-to-autistic-people cred, don't donate to Autism Speaks. Here's why.