LETHBRIDGE – Across Canada, food bank usage is up by 1.3 per cent over last year.
Almost every province saw an increase, but the biggest spike was right here in Alberta, shooting up 23 per cent from 2014. A record 67,443 people accessed a food bank in Alberta during the month of March alone.
GOING HUNGRY: Food bank visits spike across Canada – in Alberta most of all
Danielle McIntyre is the executive director with Interfaith Food Bank in Lethbridge. She’s not surprised by the spike.
“Alberta has always been the land where you would come and work and have a good income.
“The changes to the economy recently are taking a toll on our working families.
“We are seeing about 25 per cent of people coming to the food bank have jobs, it’s just that they are either low-paying jobs or they aren’t getting enough hours to keep food on the table.”
Oil dropped from more than $100 a barrel in March 2014 to $50 this March, leading to 35,000 people being laid off in the oil and gas sector in Canada.
“We tend to weather the storm a bit better than some of the other centres in Alberta that are more oil focused, simply because we are diversified down here and there are a lot of options.”
With the food banks’ busiest season just around the corner, McIntyre says she is buckling down for the holiday rush.
“We’ve been bringing our numbers down as the economy had been getting better, but now with the recent changes, we are expecting to serve about 200 more households this Christmas than we did last year.”
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