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Food Banks Across Canada Face Unprecedented Demand Amid Economic Strain

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As Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving this long weekend, food banks across the country painted a somber picture of the increasing hardships faced by many. Amid growing inflation, spiraling food and housing costs, and unstable employment scenarios, there is a ballooning need for food aid.

Neil Hetherington, CEO of Toronto’s Daily Bread, remarked that this has been the “most challenging Thanksgiving we have ever had.” Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Daily Bread noted roughly 65,000 client visits per month. Distressingly, that number swelled to a staggering 275,000 last month.

Food Banks Across Canada Face Unprecedented Demand Amid Economic Strain
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow work together on sorting Team 4 at a Thanksgiving weekend food sorting day Saturday at the Daily Bread Food Bank in Etobicoke.
Jim Rankin / Toronto Star

Economic Factors Contribute to Rising Needs

“You’ve got food prices, you’ve got a precarious work environment, and most of all lack of decent, affordable housing,” Hetherington pointed out. This potent mix of socio-economic factors provides insight into why more Canadians are seeking assistance from food banks.

Echoing this sentiment, Cynthia Boulter, the chief operating officer at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, labelled the food demand they’ve encountered this year as “unprecedented”. She highlighted that when she joined around five years ago, the food bank assisted between 6,000 and 7,000 people monthly. That number has now skyrocketed to between 16,000 and 17,000.

Situation in Quebec

Quebec isn’t faring much better. Martin Munger, director of Les Banques alimentaires du Québec, overseeing a network of 32 food aid-providing organizations, emphasized that the demand for food assistance has been relentless for over a year. Citing data from March 2022, Munger noted that their network served an average of 671,000 individuals monthly in the province. This was a significant increase of nine per cent from 2021 and 33 per cent from 2019.

Volunteers sort through donated groceries at Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on April 18, 2023.(Via AFP)

Seniors and Children – A Growing Concern

Statistics from Food Banks Canada add to the grim narrative. The data reveals that the percentage of seniors accessing food banks has surged from 6.8 per cent in 2019 to 8.9 per cent in 2022. Alarmingly, about one-third of food bank users are children.

Economic Indicators at Odds with Rising Food Bank Use

Hetherington expressed deep concern over the record high food bank usage, especially when the country’s unemployment rates are notably low. He’s been in discussions with both Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow about this disconcerting trend, highlighting that the current scenario is “upside down” for many organizations like his.

“We’re the canary in the coal mine,” Hetherington warns, suggesting that the country might be on the precipice of a larger socio-economic crisis if negative economic indicators begin to manifest.

A new report from Food Banks Canada shows that skyrocketing food prices have a shocking number of Canadians sometimes going hungry. Kamil Karamali reports – Jun 6, 2022

Adapting to Growing Needs

Despite the dire situation, food banks are doing their best to adapt. Both Boulter and Hetherington mentioned their respective organizations’ amplified fundraising efforts. Boulter shared that the Greater Vancouver Food Bank has shifted focus to building partnerships with food distributors and farmers to access fresh food, especially after discontinuing most community food drives in 2022.

Their strategy includes salvaging large industrial donations where aesthetic imperfections would otherwise lead to food waste. “We focus a lot on recovering… donations of food where… avocados were a few centimetres too small… or the bread was in the oven for 20 seconds too long,” Boulter explained.

Furthermore, a province-wide campaign in collaboration with Food Banks B.C. aims to accumulate online donations, leveraging the Vancouver Food Bank’s “bulk buying power” to amplify the impact of monetary contributions.

An Urgent Plea

Despite all efforts, the demand continues to outstrip supply. Munger shared that local food banks have witnessed unyielding growth in need. He issued an urgent plea for Quebec residents to contemplate making financial donations to assist food purchases. “We need (the) help of everybody,” he emphasized.

Hetherington encouraged those who can’t donate to consider other forms of advocacy, urging Canadians to hold their elected officials accountable for their poverty reduction strategies.

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