Meals insecurity in Mississauga has reached an unprecedented and undesirable milestone.
Based on Meals Banks Mississauga’s newest annual Influence report, the town simply west of Toronto is seeing the quickest rising meals financial institution utilization in all of Ontario.
In Mississauga, 1 in 13 residents or eight per cent of the town’s inhabitants used a meals financial institution between June 2023 and Could 2024.
Virtually a 3rd of these purchasers, roughly 16,000, are kids – a 42 per cent enhance from the earlier fiscal yr.
In complete, Meals Banks Mississauga, the town’s main meals safety group, and its 60-plus member companies noticed 421,251 visits in that time-frame – an 80 per cent year-over-year leap.
These visits translate to 56,267 meals financial institution customers, which is greater than double the quantity of people that accessed a meals financial institution or associated service the yr earlier than. Provincially, the variety of meals financial institution customers went up by 25 per cent throughout that time-frame.
Throughout its community, Meals Banks Mississauga, which is previously referred to as the Mississauga Meals Financial institution, distributed greater than 9 million kilos of meals from June 2023 to Could 2024, greater than double what it handed out the earlier yr.
“Food banks were meant to be a temporary emergency support, not a replacement for government social assistance programs,” Meghan Nicholls, CEO of Meals Banks Mississauga, mentioned in a information launch.
“But almost 40 years later, we must show that we are in a food insecurity crisis because government programs are underfunded and haven’t kept up with the rising cost of living. People shouldn’t have to choose between paying rent, feeding themselves, or feeding their families.”
Nicholls went on to say that the capability of Mississauga’s meals banks community is “maxing out.”
“It’s only thanks to our community’s support and generosity that we can continue providing food to our neighbours today while advocating for policy change for tomorrow,” she mentioned.
