For the first time in its nearly four-decade history, a Montreal food bank says it’s struggling to meet demand for its services.
The number of people needing help to stock their fridges has significantly increased from last year amid the impact of inflation and higher interest rates.
“We are in a crisis situation,” said Tasha Lackman, executive director of the Depot Community Food Centre. “The numbers keep going up. We’re having to tell people that we can’t help them and that’s not the situation that we want to be in.”
In 37 years, it’s never been so busy at the food security organization, a pillar of the NDG community since 1986. It offers free, freshly cooked meals to people on a daily basis, with no questions asked. At its food bank, clients are able to take home high-quality food in a dignified shopping-like experience accompanied by a volunteer. For the first time ever, however, they’ve had to limit the number of people coming through each month.
“Nearly every single day, people are just running out of food and the support that we’re giving is not enough anymore,” said Houda Kerkadi, community engagement co-ordinator at the depot.
Lackman says in all of 2022 they gave out 10,000 food baskets. This year they’re on pace to more than double that. They had already given out 10,000 halfway through the year.
“We’ve actually had to put a cap on the number of people that we’re seeing for the first time ever. We’ve also had to cut the size of the food baskets that we’re giving by one-third in order to be able to reach as many people as possible.”
Kerkadi says people who had used their services in 2017 and 2018 but had stopped relying on the depot have been forced to return due to the rising cost of living.
“There’s an affordability crisis going on, increased housing prices and all of that we see in real time at our doorstep,” Lackman said.
She said about a third of those coming in these days are from Ukraine.
The spike in clients means more pressure on volunteers, like retired elementary school teacher Isabelle Daniel.
“Oh, my goodness, yes,” she said. “For a while, it’s overwhelming.”
Daniel takes pride in forging relationships with the people she serves, but says she has far less time to interact with them now because there are so many more.
“This is not a problem at the depot. This is a national problem,” Lackman said.
Across the city at Sun Youth’s food bank, they’re also having trouble keeping up.
“It’s an explosion,” Sun Youth emergency services director Ernie Rosa said. “The last couple of days in our waiting room, it’s just been filled to capacity.”
With Thanksgiving this weekend, they hosted a free turkey giveaway by the CMA CGM Foundation on Thursday. Rosa said families experiencing food insecurity face extra pressure on holidays, and the giveaway provided some relief.
Rosa says if demand keeps increasing at the food bank on a daily basis, they might have to start turning people away too.
“We’re getting close to our limits, to be quite honest,” he said.
The Depot Community Food Centre hoped to get more support from the government and donors. Times are hard but they say they will keep helping because it’s their passion.
“It fills my heart up and makes me feel wonderful,” said Daniel, the volunteer.
It’s an uphill battle for those going out of their way to be there for the most vulnerable.
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