New numbers present extra individuals are counting on meals banks because of the cost-of-living disaster.
“The data we are about to share reveals food bank use has reached an all-time high in Ontario,” Feed Ontario CEO Carolyn Stewart instructed meals financial institution representatives Tuesday morning in Mississauga.
Based mostly on knowledge from Feed Ontario, a community of hunger-relief organizations, multiple million folks visited a meals financial institution between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024. That’s a 25 per cent improve over final yr.
“That’s one million people in Ontario not having enough food to eat, one million people having to make impossible choices between paying rent or choosing groceries for their family. And one million people unable to keep their heads above water and in need of help,” Stewart mentioned.
The info additionally reveals 7.6 million visits to Ontario meals banks throughout the previous yr, up 17 per cent from the yr earlier than. It additionally marks a 134 per cent bounce from 2019-2020.
“We are tired of breaking records, and we are tired of feeling like those in government who should be responding with a sense of urgency aren’t hearing the alarm bells that we’re ringing,” Kirstin Beardsley, Meals Banks Canada CEO, mentioned at Tuesday’s press convention.
Influence in Waterloo Area
Those self same alarm bells are going off on the Meals Financial institution of Waterloo Area. CEO Kim Wilhelm was additionally on the press convention, echoing the considerations from different organizations.
“In Waterloo Region right now, one in 10 households is accessing food assistance,” she mentioned. “Last year, it was one in 14 and two years ago, one in 20 households.”
Whereas many have questioned if the inflow of worldwide college students is driving up the numbers, native knowledge reveals that’s not the case.
“Students as a whole in Waterloo Region make up less than five per cent of the participants who are accessing food assistance,” Wilhelm defined.
Meals banks throughout the province, in the meantime, are nervous that if the price of residing doesn’t go down, the variety of folks accessing their companies will solely go up.
“We’re not going to see the end in sight,” mentioned Wilhelm. “Right now, the government is expecting food banks to solve the problem, but food banks can’t solve the problems.”
They’re a brief measure, she provides, as a result of that’s all they had been ever designed to be.
– With reporting from CTVNewsToronto.ca
