Food Bank use reaches record high

Feed Ontario has released its 2021 Hunger Report revealing a record 592,308 people accessed emergency food support last year, visiting food banks more than 3.6 million times. This is an increase of 10 per cent and 12 per cent respectively over the previous year, making it the largest single-year increase since 2009. The report recognizes the impact that COVID-19 has had on food bank use in Ontario, but points to an accumulation of several income insecurity trends over recent years as the primary drivers of this growth.
“Like gasoline on a fire, COVID-19 only compounded income security and affordability issues in Ontario,” said Feed Ontario’s interim executive director Siu Mee Cheng. “This includes the province’s insufficient social safety net, the rise in precarious employment, and increasingly unaffordable housing and living costs.”
The 2021 Hunger Report notes that while pandemic response measures, like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), helped many Canadians avert crisis, some of the province’s most vulnerable citizens still fell through the cracks. This is reflected in the report’s data, which showed that CERB recipients represented less than one per cent of those who accessed food banks last year, compared to a staggering 36 per cent increase in the number of senior citizens turning to food banks for support.
“The rising number of older adults relying on food banks for assistance is a trend that we have been monitoring closely since 2017,” says Cheng. “While there are a number of contributing factors to this trend, the most significant is how the growing lack of affordability associated with housing and the cost of living have become, particularly for those on a fixed income and low-income earners.”
Another demographic highlighted in the report are people with disabilities, who represent a third of all food bank users in Ontario. Based on a sample of eight food banks, it was found that over 60 per cent of people who self-identified as having a disability had less than $100 left per month after paying for housing and utilities, including one out of five respondents who indicated that their monthly expenses currently exceed their monthly income.
The report provides a preliminary analysis of current food bank use and finds that the record high does not appear to be reversing. Visitor data for September 2021 found that food bank visits were 32 per cent higher than the average September for 2017-2019.
“This preliminary data tells us that the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding,” said Cheng. “It is critical that the province address this crisis by implementing immediate income security measures and supports to address affordability issues today.”
This is why we must do more than donate to our local food bank, we must demand systemic supports for employment and income protected by legislation.