‘At a breaking point’: Toronto food bank visits reach record levels

Food banks in Toronto are demanding action from the provincial government after a record-number of visits in March, saying the food charity system is “at a breaking point.”

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Neil Hetherington, CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank, said in March, the food bank saw 270,000 client visits, marking the most ever recorded in the organization’s history.

According to Hetherington, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the food bank saw around 65,000 clients every month. During the pandemic around 120,000 people visited.

“Subsequently with inflation, that number has more than doubled to 270,000 client visits,” he said. “In addition, we are now seeing 12,500 new clients coming to us every single month for the first time — they have never been to a food bank before — and now they are relying on food charity to be able to feed their families.”

“Let me be very clear — we are in a crisis,” Hetherington said.

“The Daily Bread Food Bank and food banks all across the city are at a breaking point and there is no sign of relief,” he said. “In fact, the opposite. With record high rates of inflation, rising rents and stagnant incomes, Torontonians are struggling more and more to put food on their table.”

He said the need for food charity is “continuing at an unsustainable rate of exponential growth.”

“We continue to see a large proportion of clients who rely on fixed income such as social assistance, accessing our food banks. Now a single individual on Ontario Works receives a dismal $733 a month to survive on — the exact same amount as in 2018,” Hetherington said. “Despite inflation having risen by 16.68 per cent, a single individual on disability is receiving $1,229 per month to survive on, some $900 below the poverty line.”

According to Hetherington, the proportion of food bank clients with full-time employment has doubled in the past year to 33 per cent in 2022 from 16 per cent pre-COVID pandemic.

“It used to be that if you went to school and got an education, got a job, you would be just fine. That isn’t the case anymore,” he said, adding that the Daily Bread Food Bank expects these trends to continue.

“We simply cannot go on the way things are going right now,” he said.

Devi Arasanayagam, co-founder and board chair of the Fort York Food Bank, echoed Hetherington’s remarks, saying the “fragile system” is at its “breaking point.”

“What we saw and experienced in March is something I have never experienced in my 25 years at the food bank,” she said.

Arasanayagam said the Fort York Food Bank, a small storefront in downtown Toronto, saw 3,000 visitors each week last month.

She said the food bank is seeing an increase in the number of new visitors and of children accessing food charity.

“It used to be one of every seven was a child. Now we see one of every four is now a child,” Arasanayagam said. “The face of food bank users is changing.”

Arasanayagam said Toronto is a “prosperous city,” adding that when the food bank opened, it did not anticipate there would still be lineups for food 25 years later.

“This is not something that we should be experiencing,” she said.

5:02 Guide to using a food bank with Daily Bread CEO Neil Hetherington

Hetherington said the food bank network is now “demanding” an emergency top-up to Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program be provided to those who need it.

“We are requesting, we are demanding, we are asking the province to come together and to provide the same emergency assistance that was provided to every single person on social assistance throughout the pandemic,” Hetherington said.

“Now, while food while food inflation is north of 10 per cent, we need the Ontario government to come together and provide these payments immediately.”

Hetherington said food insecurity is not a problem “that can be solved by charities.”

It is the government’s “duty to ensure that every person in this city is in a position that they can realize their right to food,” Hetherington said.

“So today, we are raising the alarm bells and will continue to do so. We will not stand silently while our neighbours go hungry. We can make the change in this city, province and country so that everybody’s right to food is realized.”

In an email to Global News on Tuesday, the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said the provincial government increased rates for income support by five per cent for families and individuals under ODSP.

“Future ODSP rates will also be tied to the rate of inflation, with the first adjustment taking place in July,” the email read.

The ministry also said the government is “empowering people” with disabilities who “can and are able to work” by increasing the earnings exemption to $1,000.

The ministry said it is supporting people on Ontario Works with access to extended health benefits.

“Outside of social assistance, there are also a variety of income-tested benefits available to Ontarians, such as federal and provincial children’s benefits and the Ontario Trillium Benefit (a tax-free payment that helps low-to-moderate-income Ontario residents pay for energy costs, sales and property tax),” the ministry said.

The ministry said the provincial government has invested more than $1 billion through the Social Services Relief Fund to help support the most vulnerable through the pandemic.

It said shelters, food banks, charities, non-profits and emergency services have accessed this fund to “help cope with growing demands and extraordinary circumstances.”

“That is in addition to the over more than $8.5 billion in social assistance payments we issued in 2021/22,” the ministry said.