Canada’s reliance on food banks has soared to a grim new milestone and is “spiralling out of control,” according to a new report from Food Banks Canada.
The organization says it recorded more than two million visits in March 2024, representing a 90 per cent increase in monthly visits from March 2019, and six per cent above last year’s record-breaking figure.
The latest annual survey suggests that food bank use in Alberta over the past five years the province has seen one of the highest increases in food bank use in Canada, up by 92.4 per cent.
Only Ontario (116. 8 per cent) and Quebec (109 per cent) have seen bigger increases.
While the report says demand declined slightly (.85 per cent) over the past year, food banks in the province’s biggest cities say the demand continues to break records.
“It’s no surprise,” says Marjorie Bencz, Executive Director of the Edmonton Food Bank. “We’ve seen enormous increases.”
The CEO of the Calgary Food Bank, Melissa From, says “in the past 5 years we have seen a 200 per cent increase in the value of hampers we are distributing on an annual basis.”
Denille Tizzard, Program Coordinator for the Lethbridge Food Bank, says in Sept. 2019 they handed out about 600 hampers, and while the numbers declined slightly in recent years, last month they handed out 871 food hampers and Tizzard estimates they’ll hand out even more this month.
The report says there were 172,832 visits to the 128 food banks in Alberta in March 2024 and more than 35 per cent of those users were under 18 years of age.
Food Banks Canada says food bank use in Alberta has increased 92.4 per cent over the past five years.
Nationally the report says 32 per cent of food bank clients are newcomers to Canada who have been in the country less than 10 years and 18 per cent of users are currently employed, the highest proportion ever recorded.
It blames rapid inflation, housing costs and insufficient social supports as the driving factors for poverty and food insecurity.
“Its a perfect storm with the cost of living crisis, the cost of mortgage rate increases and people are being squeezed from every angle and at the end of the day its often that last item of the budget, the grocery line, that gets squeezed off the end of the balance sheet,” says From.
“We are definitely seeing people who are coming (to the food bank) who just can’t afford food,” says Tizzard.
“They are having to choose between rent, utilities and putting food on the table and unfortunately right now food is going on the back burner,” adds Tizzard.
The organization’s “poverty report card,” on the impact of poverty across Canada, was also released alongside the latest food bank numbers.
This year’s report card gives Alberta a D-minus, the same grade as six other provinces.
Only B.C. (D+), Quebec (C+) and P.E.I. (C-) were given higher grades.
The report says that “despite being the nation’s wealthiest province, Alberta has not introduced investment that will sufficiently tackle the ongoing housing and affordability crisis.”
“As such the province has declined or stagnated in nearly all indicators this year.”
The report calls on governments to introduce measures that include rent assistance and a monthly payment to low-income groups to help offset rent and food costs.
It also makes an urgent recommendation for “a groceries and essentials benefit,” which the report says could be achieved by rejigging the existing quarterly GST credit that goes to low-income Canadians.
“We need governments to step in and look at what they can do with food banks to reduce the need,” says Bencz.
“What can we do around income security programs, what can we do around housing supports, so people don’t need to turn to food banks, because its not sustainable the way it is.”
— with files from The Canadian Press