Alarming food bank usage numbers hit close to home

A recent Feed Ontario release is painting a scary picture relating to food bank use across Ontario. 

Their new data indicates that more than 1 million people visited a food bank within the last year. 

Debbie Marson, executive director of the North Bay Food Bank, is not surprised to see the alarming numbers. 

"The stats released by Feed Ontario Tuesday really show the struggle people are facing,' Marson told BayToday.  

"Food insecurity is happening in the homes of many people in our community." 

Marson estimates the North Bay Food Bank has helped over 4,100 adults and 1,700 children since January of this year.

"We've registered 276 new households looking for support," she said.  

"We have people trying to survive on low incomes, pensions and families who need our hampers on a regular basis. We see clients who have immediate needs for food security as they faced some unexpected financial hardships. Our mission is to help our housed friends and neighbours to remain in their homes.  With our help, and the help of our community, they wouldn't have to make a choice between food or a roof over their heads."

Feed Ontario also shared that food banks in the province were visited 7.6 million times over the course of the year, which is a 134 per cent increase from 2019-2020. This represents a continued trend in the rise of food bank visits, marking an all time high and the eighth consecutive year of growth.

NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky released the following statement after numbers were revealed. 

“Everyone deserves access to good food and safe shelter – it’s a basic human right. Today we found out that 1 in 14 of our neighbours and friends - working people, seniors and children - are being forced to turn to a food bank just to survive," she stated in a release.  

"This is not the kind of province we want to live in. With the cost of everything going up we have a government right now that has done nothing to make life more affordable for Ontarians.

"It’s been 8 consecutive years of rapidly increasing food bank usage. Things are broken in Ontario, and we need a progressive government who will get serious about making it better. It’s time for change."