It’s a record for Harvest Manitoba, but not one the local food bank wants to celebrate.
Harvest said it delivered 12,000 food hampers to local families in February — the most ever for a single month.
The record was previously set in September 2021 with 11,000 hampers, and Harvest’s president Vince Barletta says the numbers have only continued to rise since then.
“We know the reasons: inflation, inflation, inflation,” Barletta told 680 CJOB’s The Start.
“That’s what we’re hearing on the phones from our clients, from new families that need the support of Harvest.
“The price of food, the price of fuel, the price of everything these days going up is putting a real pinch on all kinds of people.”
Despite the record numbers, Barletta said the true number of Manitobans in need is considerably higher.
“Hitting a record of 12,000 hamper households supported by Harvest across the province is nothing to brag about, it’s nothing to celebrate — it represents tens of thousands of people who are in poverty.
“That’s households, so behind that number we’re talking about close to 35,000 people — half of them kids — who are living in those households.”