We’re told that inflation has plateaued. Food prices are down a touch. And there’s hope on the horizon that retail food prices will begin to moderate – albeit very gradually – later this year. But Canada’s Food Banks say demand is still spiralling upward…
In fact, food banks from Vancouver to St. John’s are reporting what at least one organizer is calling a grim milestone. As of last March, more than 2 million Canadians were visiting Food Banks every month. And the number is still rising.
Constant pressure
Canada’s Food Banks have reported constant and increasing pressure on their resources since before the start of the COVID crisis. Visit totals eclipsed the 1 million-per-month mark back in 2019. And they passed the 2 million mark this past March.
According to the newly-released Food Banks Canada 2024 Hunger Report, “[C]lose to 30 per cent of Canadian food banks report running out of food as they buckle under the unrelenting ‘one-two punch of housing and food inflation’.”
Key findings
- Food Bank use soared to over 2 million visits in March 2024, shattering Canada’s previous, 2023 hist-oric peak – and representing a 90 percent increase compared to March 2019.
- One-third of food bank clients are children – representing nearly 700,000 monthly visits in 2024.
- Nearly 1-in-5 food bank clients (18 percent) are employed, compared to roughly 1-in-10 (12 percent) in 2019.
- Nearly 70 percent of food bank clients live in market-rent (unassisted) housing.
- Grossly inadequate Provincial social assistance remains the most common source of income for food bank clients.
- 32 percent of food bank clients are newcomers to Canada – who have been in the country for 10 years or less.
Unsustainable
“This unthinkable rate of growth is not something food banks, nor people in Canada, can sustain. The damage is done, and people need immediate supports to help them recover,” says Kirstin Beardsley, Chief Executive Officer, Food Banks Canada.
“Everyone must come to the table to solve this problem. We cannot do it alone and need help to drive change.”
The takeaway…
“Food Banks Canada believes that a dual-path approach is the way forward,” Beardsley insists.
First, she says, “We need governments [at all levels] to rapidly introduce income policies that will provide much-needed relief for the millions of people struggling right now.”
But long-term, “Low-income workers, single adults, renters and communities in the North need better supports.” And that’s going to take a real and sustained effort by governments, “to repair the social safety net that lies in tatters after decades of neglect.”
My take
The Canadian federal government says it’s actively pursuing ways to get food prices down. We’ve been hearing that for going on 2 years, now, but food prices continue to rise.
Meanwhile…
US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has enunciated plans to attack high food prices in her country at the source – with new regulations and legislation, if necessary. Governments across the Free World are anxiously waiting to see what Harris actually does, and whether it will actually work…
~ Maggie J.