Montreal –
Increased demand for food assistance this year, along with a surge in regular users during the holiday season, has put a strain on Canada’s food banks this month, according to directors of several Canadian food bank associations. That’s what it means.
“Christmas is always a busy time for food banks, but especially when you add Christmas to the mix…and the normal demand during December increases, the pressure on food banks only increases,” said executive director Shona Bissell. Ta. Director of Food Bank Alberta, a network of more than 100 local organizations across the province.
Organizations across the country are reporting an increase in users this year. Food Banks Canada, a national network, counts 1,935,911 visitors to food banks in March, an increase of 32.1 per cent from March 2022 and 78.5 per cent from March 2019, according to the latest data available. increased.
Feed Ontario reported in November that the number of visitors to Ontario from April 2022 to March 2023 increased by 36 per cent from the previous year to 5,888,685.
Bissell said her network is unable to increase food stockpiles because demand is so high. “As soon as the food arrives, it will be distributed to people in need,” she said in an interview. “Every year we seem to feed more and more people.”
Martin Munger, executive director of the Quebec Food Bank, said his organization has distributed twice the number of aid packages this year than it distributed in 2019. He said tens of thousands of food baskets had been distributed in the run-up to Christmas. , alone, he said. We are currently running low on stock.
He said demand was “high throughout the year and even higher than usual during the holiday season.”
Food Bank BC Executive Director Dan Van Taylor said in 2023 demand for the food bank will be at its highest level since it began operating in British Columbia in the early 1980s.
Van Taylor said the food bank saw an increase in demand and support in December.
“We saw even more people donate in December as well. Food, funds and other ways people can help, for example by volunteering, could offset some of the increase in demand we’re seeing. ” he said.
Despite the challenges, Bissell, van Taylor and Munger are hopeful they can continue to raise enough funds and donations to meet demand without turning people away. But Munger said the government is introducing more sustainable solutions to help people feed themselves, rather than relying on food banks, an emergency resource currently used by one in 10 Quebecers. He said he hopes to do so.
“We have to stop the increase,” he said. “It’s not sustainable and food banks aren’t developed to be able to sustainably meet demand of this scale.”
Concerns about sustainability were echoed by Van Taylor, who said support should include improvements such as more affordable housing and increased social assistance and other programs for people in need. Stated.
“We need to look at some kind of intervention that not only provides more money and more food, but also takes the burden off food banks. “We need extra precautions that mean we don’t have banks putting food on the table,” he said.
– With files from Ashley Joannou in Vancouver
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 30, 2023.
