Household food insecurity continues to be an urgent issue among Canadians. In the Greater Toronto Area, local food banks are seeing that firsthand.
A video recently posted to Twitter shows a long lineup outside of the Fort York Food Bank, located near College Street and Bathurst Street in the downtown core. It has now been viewed more than two million times.
For the past year, the Fort York Food Bank has seen a month-over-month increase in people needing help. Executive director Julie LeJeune tells Global News that rise is mainly being driven by inflation.
“Currently we’re serving over 3,200 people a week,” she says. “Last month, it was 3,000. A month before, it was 2,500.”
The food bank has had to increase its purchasing budget in order to meet demand. The registered charity also holds fundraisers, however LeJeune says the majority of the food it distributes comes from its partners, the Daily Bread Food Bank and Second Harvest.
“We see everyone from students to the elderly, definitely a lot of working families, individuals, those on ODSP, or Ontario Works,” she says.
Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington estimates they currently spend between $1.5 million and $1.8 million a month on food alone. That used to be its yearly spend.
“2023 is shaping up to be the worst year that the Daily Bread Food Bank, and each of the food banks across the city, have ever experienced before,” he said during an interview on Thursday.
Hetherington says that prior to the pandemic, the charitable organization saw between 60,000 and 65,000 clients per month. That number doubled during the pandemic, and this past March rose to 270,000 clients visits.
He adds that about a third of food bank users have full-time employment, but are still unable to make ends meet.
“We need to fundamentally ask why is that the case?” he says.
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