At the start of the election campaign, there are many major issues: cost of living, health, pandemic, education, environment, security… They are all important. But we must add one. Today, in Quebec, in all regions, more than 600,000 people each month need help to feed themselves. And one-third of those food aid recipients are children.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Since 2019, the number of people using the Food Banks of Quebec network has increased by more than 30%. Faced with such demand, organizations struggle to alleviate food insecurity. What are campaigning party leaders proposing to remedy the situation?
More and more people working among customers
There have always been people who couldn’t make ends meet, despite social measures, the work of community organizations and the generosity of Quebecers. It still exists, this poverty linked to misery, hardship, isolation.
But there is another disturbing and emerging reality. More and more workers are turning to food banks because they have no other choice. From 2019 to 2021, the number of users who are employed jumped 40%.
The context seriously increases inequalities
Everything is more expensive: rents, gas, groceries, clothes… This spike in costs adds to the disorganization caused by the pandemic. Wages and benefits have not kept pace with inflation. Many people have not recovered their income from before; many people continue to experience sporadic income losses related to outbreaks in their workplaces or at home.
The current situation is seriously increasing inequalities. On the one hand, there are those who have benefited from the economic recovery. This is so strong that inflation has jumped and steep rate hikes are needed to calm the ardor of consumers.
Those who have benefited from the recovery are also suffering from inflation, as an inconvenience.
And there are the others, who could not jump on the recovery bandwagon. For them, this general rise in prices is not an inconvenience, it is a tipping point. It’s the difference between being able and not being able to fill lunchboxes.
Help in the right way
The Food Banks of Quebec provide food to 1,200 community organizations. For many of these organizations, the needs are such at the present time that we have to resolve to reduce the size of the baskets, to reduce the frequency of food distribution.
We are asking political parties to take a stand to help people struggling with food insecurity and to support our network, in particular by making it possible to quickly purchase food to meet the increase in demand.
We also need funding for food bank operations that are facing unprecedented cost increases and investments in more modern infrastructure to process food scavenged from producers, processors and supermarkets to avoid food waste while providing healthy food to those in need.
Food insecurity is of course a symptom of poverty. Food aid is an essential short-term solution, but structuring social measures must ensure that Quebecers emerge permanently from precariousness.