Lethbridge food banks are releasing numbers on who is accessing their services following Food Banks Canada’s 2018 Hunger Count.
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The Interfaith Food Bank says in March 2018, 5,352 people visited its facility.
Two areas that stand out to staff include a 39 per cent usage from children under 18; and single individuals account for half of the food bank’s usage.
“That single individual category is one that is hard for people to notice,” Interfaith Food bank operations manager Neil Heaton said. “A lot of them have jobs and they just can’t make ends meet unfortunately.”
When you add in the Lethbridge Food Bank, more than 8,500 people accessed services in March 2018. In that month, children under 18 represented around 40 per cent of that number.
It’s a statistic that isn’t lost on one school in the city.
“If kids are coming to school and asking for food and describing and saying that they’re hungry, then kids themselves are saying that there is a need for it,” Fleetwood-Bawden Elementary School teacher councillor Kerri Lynn Haney-Vandenberg said.
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After noticing this trend amongst their students, Fleetwood-Bawden Elementary School introduced a breakfast program which serves close to 100 kids every day. When it is combined with the Lethbridge Food Bank’s school lunch program, the school is noticing a major difference.
“I think just kids feel supported as far as nutrition goes and knowing that food is here available to them,” Haney-Vandenberg said. “It allows them to have that regulation piece, which food is a big part of.”
The 2018 Hunger Count also recognizes the importance of supporting children, calling for more affordable early learning and child care across the country.
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