More Canadians using food banks: report

LOWER MAINLAND (NEWS 1130) – As you grumble about the ever-increasing price of groceries, remember that there are hundreds of thousands of Canadians who can’t even afford to step inside the supermarket.

The country’s food banks have seen a third straight yearly jump in demand and many saw their shelves picked clean at least once over the past 12 months.

“In March of this year, more than 860,000 people accessed food from a food bank. More than 300,000 of those helped were children,” says Shawn Pegg, director of policy and research for Food Banks Canada and author of HungerCount 2016.

“This is the third consecutive year that we have seen increases nationally. Each and every month, food banks are helping 200,000 more people than they were before the 2008 recession.”

The latest HungerCount report finds the increase in food bank use was widespread this year, with eight out of ten provinces experiencing a hike and Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia showing drastic surges of more than 17 per cent.

“We know that even before people go to the food bank they have to make a lot of very hard decisions,” Pegg tells NEWS 1130.

“They have already asked friends and family for help, they have more than likely already moved to lower cost and lower quality housing, they have sold possessions to be able to buy food, and they have gone into payday loan and credit card debt. We see parents going without eating for a meal or a day so they’ll have enough food to feed their kids.”

The report also suggests many of the 1700 Syrian refugees resettled in the Lower Mainland, 40 per cent within Surrey, have been asking the local food banks for help.

The Surrey Food Bank saw a 17 per cent increase in the number of people requesting assistance in 2016, with refugees playing a big part in the jump.

Working Canadians also make up a large part of food bank clientele, with one in six households helped this year either currently or recently employed.

“We’ve seen the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs for blue-collar workers. We are seeing them replaced by employment that is low-paid, part-time and temporary,” explains Pegg.

“We see people working two and three part-time jobs and still coming to the food bank because they can’t afford enough food.”

Pegg says the increasing demand for food bank services has left many with critical shortages of supplies on a regular basis.

“Food banks are working very hard to keep up with demand but I know it’s always a struggle.”

The HungerCount report puts forward a number of policy recommendations to reduce the need for food banks, including the formation of a national poverty reduction strategy by October of next year.