The pressure is on the pantries of food banks, which have never had so many mouths to feed. Without an additional boost from Quebec, they fear having to make difficult choices as early as April.
Soaring food prices are putting a double strain on food bank operations. The foodstuffs they distribute cost more just when more households need help.
Before the pandemic, nearly 500,000 people visited a Quebec food bank each month. In 2022, this figure jumped to 671,000, according to the latest HungerCount, which is based on data collected in March 2022.
The director general of the Food Banks of Quebec, Martin Munger, expects traffic to be even higher this year as the association prepares the 2023 edition of the report.
I can tell you that the year 2023 will be the most difficult that we have experienced in 35 years of existence. The needs are immense. It’s disproportionate to the tools we have.
“We don’t have the data yet, but what the members on the ground are telling us is that it hasn’t stopped increasing since then,” he explains. There are more people who frequent Les Moissons. There are new faces coming in every week. »
The Legault government has already granted one-time assistance of $6 million last December. Further aid will be needed, as this sum has only made it through to the end of March, Munger says. “We are in the process of distributing the last shipments and already the Harvests are starting to run out of stocks. It’s starting to have holes, less diversity. They’re having a hard time supplying the demand right now. »
A plate full of challenges
The situation of the most vulnerable households is “appalling” while traffic at Moisson Québec has doubled since the pandemic, notes its general manager, Élaine Côté. “I can tell you that the year 2023 will be the most difficult that we have experienced in our 35 years of existence. The needs are immense. It’s disproportionate to the tools we have. »
Without government assistance, Moisson Québec, which serves the greater region of the national capital, will not be able to meet all of the demand within a few weeks, warns Ms. Côté. “We will have to stop services, for sure. We won’t have a choice. We cannot respond to 70,000 different people per month with the financial means we have. »
Food inflation also has repercussions for donors, notes the general manager of Moisson Kamouraska, Mireille Lizotte. “It’s not that they aren’t generous, but people, they do what they can. […] That [l’inflation] really hits the middle class. »
Grocers, who are major donors, are also managing their inventory more tightly amid rising prices and supply chain disruption.
This rigorous management means that less food is recovered by Moisson Kamouraska. “More and more grocers are going to check their inventory, so we get less of it,” notes Ms. Lizotte. We get less meat. When the vegetables arrive at our house, they are really at the end of their life. The organization must therefore make more purchases to diversify its offer, she adds.
Need more money
Help will be needed to help food banks foot the bill. Ms. Côté would like the government to adopt longer-term assistance to allow them to better plan their activities. December’s emergency aid was welcome, but it “brings enormous stress” because agencies don’t know what will happen next.
As the provincial budget that will be unveiled on March 21 approaches, Food Banks of Quebec is requesting one-time assistance of $24 million to support them in this exceptional context. The association is also calling for the organization’s recurrent funding to be increased by $5 million.
It is also calling for annual funding of $5 million for the next four years to invest in their infrastructure.
The amounts claimed remain modest compared to the nearly $2 billion that the tax cuts promised by the Legault government will cost. “We think that if the government can find two billion for tax cuts, it should be able to find $24 million to ensure that people can feed themselves. »