‘We’re addressing the symptom, not the cause’: food banks across Canada
With inflation driving food prices higher while wages and support programs lag behind, numerous directors say demand at Canada’s food banks is greater than ever.New Canadians and working, lower-middle class people are among those now lining up for food hampers.
“This is a broken system,” Williams said as people began to gather outside for a hamper at the Bridges To Hope Foodbank in St. John’s.Bridges to Hope’s client numbers have more than quadrupled since the months before the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams said. Before, he’d open a few days a week and see 20 people a day. Now he’s open four days and one night a week, and he sees about 100 people a day.
Waiting outside the Richmond Food Bank, Jacqueline Lendaza said she and her husband have done everything they can to save money, including growing vegetables on their apartment’s balcony and even giving up driving. “We are suffering and we try to do coupon shopping and count the points and everything,” said Lendaza, adding that these small “tricks” don’t make life much easier.
“I would always have this guilty feeling that there’s someone having it worse than me, and me taking this food from them, it felt like I shouldn’t be doing that,” she said.“When COVID hit, and I looked at my pantry … It was like I had no choice.” The vice-president of community at the Regina Food Bank is marking the organization’s 40th anniversary. And while it’s a chance to thank volunteers and supporters for decades of help, he says it’s another year where poverty goes unsolved.
Froh said all types of people come to the food bank, including those who work full-time. They may not make a living wage, or they can’t afford rent, or they’re on disability, he said. Lackman said the rising cost of living is driving increased demand for food at the depot. Among her new clients are newcomers to Canada, who she said lack robust support from the government, leaving community organizations to “pick up the slack.”
Since Diana Mahaffy joined the Centretown Community Food Centre as its manager two-and-a-half years ago, demand has more than doubled while its budget has remained the same. The centre’s emergency food program does not receive government funding and instead relies on community partners and individual supporters. That puts its sustainability into question as the cost of living rises, Mahaffy said.
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