Food banks see soaring use by Canadians

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) – Inflation, housing costs and poor social supports drove more than two million Canadians to use food banks in March, according to a report by Food Banks Canada released Monday.

The soaring figure reported in March 2024 was almost five times the number of visits recorded for the same period in 2019.

Food Banks Canada Chief Executive Officer Kirstin Beardsley said the steep increase is proof that low-income Canadians have been pushed to “the brink” and they need help immediately, the Canadian Press reported.

Inroads into the crisis can be made if governments adopt a new rent assistance program for low-income Canadians to relieve the twin pressures of food and rent costs, the HungerCount 2024 report said.

The crisis has hit some groups particularly hard, including newcomers to Canada, the disabled, seniors and families with children.

A third of those using the good banks were children, which reached almost 700,000 so far this year. About 18 percent of the overall users were employed in low-wage jobs.

Beardsley said low-income Canadians should receive a government “groceries and essential benefit” to help counteract the crisis.

“It’s really to offset those essential costs, the increases in rent that people are seeing, the increases of essentials like food,” she said.

While it is true that inflation is diminishing and interest rates are dropping, many Canadians cannot wait for the economic relief those factors promise.

“People need money in their pockets today,” Beardsley said.