Food banks across the country have been put under pressure in recent weeks. Although their traffic is always higher during the holidays, this pivotal period came at the end of a year 2023 where demand was higher overall.
According to the general director of the Food Banks of Quebec, Martin Munger, more than twice as many aid baskets were distributed this year than in 2019.
The various food banks in the province handed out tens of thousands of food baskets in the run-up to Christmas, which means that reserves are currently low.
“ [La demande] was high throughout the year, and it was higher during the holiday season too,” he confirmed in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Faced with this situation, Mr. Munger hopes that the provincial government will put in place lasting solutions to help people feed themselves, rather than resorting to food banks, an emergency resource which now serves one in ten Quebecers, a- he recalled.
“It must indeed stop increasing, it is not sustainable,” he maintained. Food banks were not developed to meet demand of this magnitude on an ongoing basis. »
The observation made by Mr. Munger also resonates elsewhere in the country, notably in Alberta.
“Christmas is always a busy time for our food banks, but this is even more so when you take into account the demand which has been high throughout the month of December. This puts even more pressure on food banks,” explained Food Banks Alberta Executive Director Shawna Bissell.
Organizations across the country have reported an increase in attendance this year.
The national Food Banks Canada network counted 1,935,911 visits to food banks in March – the latest data available – an increase of 32.1% compared to March 2022.
This was also a 78.5% jump from March 2019.
In Ontario, visits jumped 36% – to 5,888,685 – between April 2022 and March 2023, according to a November release from Feed Ontario.
Mme Bissell added that demand is so high in its network that it is impossible to prepare reserves.
“As soon as the food arrives, it is distributed to people in need,” she said.