(Toronto) This year, food bank use saw the largest increase ever recorded in the country, according to a network present in Canada’s major regions.
Posted at 7:38 am.
For example, last March there were almost two million visits, 32% more than March 2022 and 78.5% more than March 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Food Banks Canada’s new HungerCount 2023 report, which brings together 4,750 food banks and community organizations, explains that relentless inflation and the collapse of the social safety net have displaced people who never thought they needed a food bank. to get through its doors for the first time.
According to the report, the top three reasons people used food banks this year were food costs, housing costs and low wages or insufficient work hours. Additionally, a third of food bank clients are children, which equated to about 600,000 visits last March.
Visits to food banks by working people continued to rise to record levels. In 2023, employment was the main source of income for 17% of Tafel customers, compared to 12% in 2019.
Food Banks Canada is calling on governments in Canada to respond by focusing on urgent affordability issues and repairing the social safety net. To this end, the organization proposes, in particular, to set a minimum income limit today and to seriously address the severity of the housing crisis, as affordable housing becomes increasingly scarce.
Rental assistance programs are also suggested.