Food banks in Halton and Canada are facing insurmountable demand.
In Oakville and surrounding municipalities, Food for Life executive director Karen Randell says their programs are seeing more than 4,000 visitors per week.
“In the first six months of 2024, we’ve seen a 20 per cent increase in access to our programs,” Randell said. “And that doesn’t account for the steady increase that started in 2022, and has continued month over month.”
Last week, Food Banks Canada released the HungerCount 2024 report, highlighting the issue nationwide. The report opens with the fact that there were more than 2 million visits to food banks in March 2024, the highest number in history.
Last year, Food for Life received more than $16 million worth of food, but was still challenged to meet the demand it faces.
“A lot of fresh produce, proteins, and dairy products are really expensive at the grocery store,” Randell said. “We find a lot of families come to our program just to get those items that are beyond their reach when they’re accessing food through the stores every month.”
Food Banks Canada’s reports says one third of food bank users – approximately 681,000 in March – are children. An additional seven per cent are seniors, and 23 per cent are two parents families.
“Some people are wholly reliant on our programs throughout Halton and Hamilton because they just don’t have enough money after the other essential bills to cover groceries,” Randell said.
Food for Life works outside of a traditional food bank, even delivering food when needed. The group provides food for seniors in assisted living with low income, for whom getting to a food bank can be challenging.
Just in Ontario, there were 736,000 visits to food banks in March, an eight per cent increase in usage since 2023, and more than double since 2019. Data was reported from 653 food banks in the province.
Food Banks Canada’s study is available on the organization’s website.