New Brunswick food bank expecting surge in visits into the winter

A report released by Food Banks Canada shows the number of people accessing food banks has seen a spike nationally amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the same trend is not playing out here in the Maritimes — at least not yet, said Mark LeBlanc, who is the executive director of the Vestiaire St-Joseph Shediac Regional Food Bank.

“We did see a lot of clients that regularly would come to the food bank that didn’t come because they had CERB benefits,” said LeBlanc, who is also the Atlantic representative for Food Banks Canada.

The 2021 HungerCount Report compared numbers in March 2021 to those of March 2019.

The report uses March as an indicator of average usage, and no data was collected in 2020 since the organization didn’t want to burden local food banks already dealing with the pandemic.

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The report shows that since 2019, there has been a 20 percent increase in the number of people accessing food banks nationally, said LeBlanc. While the in Nova Scotia visits rose only 1.8 per cent and dropped in New Brunswick by 8.3 per cent, LeBlanc said that he is expecting that to trend to change in the coming months.

“As CRB benefits and other pandemic supports are phased out we are seeing even more of an increase,” he said.

LeBlanc said he is expecting visits will increase dramatically, by as much as 60 per cent at his food bank into the winter months which he said may not be sustainable.

“The tipping point is there we won’t have enough funds and food to support everyone if it keeps going in this direction,” he said.

A representative from Feed Nova Scotia said that spikes in food prices, rent and housing costs are creating more demand and donors may also start to feel the impacts of cost of living increases.

“As our donors find it harder to address the cost of living will they have less of and an ability to donate to us as a charity that is trying to fill some of those gaps,” said Karen Theriault, who represents Feed Nova Scotia.

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While right now the situation is manageable in the Maritimes, said LeBlanc, the report shows that food bank visits topped 1.3 million in March 2021 nationally which is the largest increase since the 2008 recession.

With so many people still out of work due to the pandemic, LeBlanc said he expects food insecurity is likely to get worse before it gets better.

“At our foodbank, we had almost a 60 per cent increase in new clients. To have a 60 per cent increase in new clients – some that have never been to a food bank before – it’s quite a number.”