While the number of people using the London Food Bank hit a new high in March, officials say more and more people in the community are stepping up and “digging into their pockets” in providing donations.
More than 5,400 families came to the food bank last month, according to co-executive director Glen Pearson.
“It was like two, 300 more families than we were expecting, so we’re in record territory,” he said. “We know it’s going to go even higher. But the fact that that happened right at the start of the food drive helped us to see what the challenge was.”
The 36th annual spring food drive kicked off on March 30 and ran until Monday. With the final numbers still adding up, Pearson said that the food bank has received over 70,000 pounds of food so far, which was collected over the 10-day drive. That’s up from 55,000 pounds donated last spring.
“We didn’t ask people to give more than they were able, and we just kind of sat back and wanted to see what would happen,” he said. “It says something about the community. They know that the needs are high, and they know it’s hard for a lot of people. And what did they turn around and do? They turned around and gave more even though they had to dig into their budgets to do so.”
Jane Roy, the other co-executive director for the London Food Bank, told Global News that “people always ask us to compare it to same point last year. But really, whatever comes in is great.”
“I think the goal is just whatever anybody can give, and so the fact that they’ve, in many ways, exceeded our expectations once again has been wonderful,” she said.
However, in reflecting on the first three months of the new year at the local food bank, Roy said things continue to be difficult.
“At the start of the year, we were pushing 5,000 families a month, and we were talking about how difficult that was. That’s 40 per cent over the same point last year,” she said. “Well, the end of March came along, and we looked at how many people came for help and it was another 10 per cent jump in one month.
“We hope eventually that goes down but that’s been really difficult,” Roy continued. “It just shows how difficult things are for a segment of society.”
Pearson highlighted the rise in demand for the food bank’s services, adding that similar organizations across the country are also reporting a seemingly continuous rise.
“Maybe 25 (to) 30 per cent of the people that are coming to us are new people,” he said. “These are people that are coming because of the cost of food, or because minimum wage use doesn’t cut it anymore in this inflationary environment, and the main reason that has usually always been accommodation costs.
“We also know what’s happened with rents, especially for people in London. So, it’s not unique London reasons, it’s true right across the country,” Pearson continued. “They’re making a minimum wage, they’re making do, and then suddenly inflation eats more and more into it and then at the end of the day they can’t do it.”
He stressed that if “we keep going down this road, there’s just no way food banks will be able to handle all of that load.”
“We had a great drive, it’s true, (and) that’s because of Londoners and they’re wonderful. But at the same time, if these things keep going on year after year, it just won’t cut it anymore,” he said.
Looking back over the most recent spring food drive, though, both Pearson and Roy stressed their immense gratitude toward the community.
“We have people cutting into their own budgets to help others,” Pearson said. “It’s not just individual citizens, it was faith groups, organizations, service clubs, businesses — they all just stepped it up a huge notch and it hurt them all more this year than it did last year, and they did it anyway.”