The COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation have led to a major increase in demand at Quebec’s food banks. Many of them are expecting the number of visits to skyrocket over the holidays.
The Quebec government announced Monday an investment of $3 million to the province’s food banks ahead of what will be another busy Christmas season.
“The pandemic, honestly since the beginning, they have seen an increase in demand. At the same time, they have seen an increase in people giving food, or money,” said Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister André Lamontagne.
That poses another issue: where to store all the food they now need.
“They’ve found out that they have a lack of fridges or trucks or sometimes the total infrastructure needs to be refurbished,” said Lamontagne.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, we had a growth of the demand on the food banks of between 30 and 50 per cent. Now it’s around 21 per cent,” said Martin Munger, director general of the Food Banks of Quebec.
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On Rock Community Services in the West Island said it would benefit from a grant for its 2,000-foot extension to its facility.
“But we actually need probably 8,000 to 10,000 square feet more,” said Kim Reid, president of On Rock.
Before the pandemic, Reid said they were helping 210 families a week. Now, it’s around 260.
“So many people who come in and say ‘I’ve never pictured myself here. I never thought I would be at the door of a food bank,'” Reid explained.
“Because of the inflation that we’re suffering, we’re getting new people that we wouldn’t have seen maybe before,” said Adrian Bercovici, the executive director of the Generations Foundation.
The Generations Foundation feeds around 8,500 children a day in Montreal and on the south shore.
Community organizations say rising food prices mean more people who are employed are finding it harder to make ends meet, as well as more seniors on fixed incomes.
“The working poor, they’re working and they’re just not making enough money to pay every bill so one of the first places that gets cut, is food,” Reid explained.
“Because if you don’t pay your rent, you’re going to lose your apartment, right? You don’t pay your car, you’re going to lose your car and then you can’t do anything,”
Fortunately, he said those who can donate are generous.
“We hope to help as many people as we can and there shouldn’t be any hunger at all in Montreal or anywhere else in the world,” said Bercovici.
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