One Million Food Bank Visitors in One Year

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One Million Food Bank Visitors in One Year.

By Margaret Ramsay. September 23rd, 2024

Feed Ontario, which represents a network of more than 1,200 food banks and hunger relief organizations in Ontario, released a new piece of record breaking data: over 1 million people in Ontario visited a food bank in the last year. This number is staggering, but Feed Ontario has been direct and clear about the underlying issues that drive food bank usage, which were highlighted in its 2023 Ontario Hunger Report.

FOOD BANK USE HAS RISEN FOR THE EIGHTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

1,001,150 unique individuals visited a food bank between April 1, 2023 and March 31st 2024, an increase of 25% over 2022-2023.

Food bank use is becoming the norm for people who are squeezed by the high cost of rent, or rely on the inadequate support of Ontario Works ($733) and Ontario Disability Benefit payments ($1368).

If Ontario Works rates had increased annually with inflation, recipients would now be receiving $863 per month. Similarly, Ontario Disability Benefits Payments covers half the disability-adjusted poverty line. These low incomes are the result of decades of cuts and freezes to social assistance rates.

5 years ago 1 in 37 people used food banks, now it is 1 in 3 people.

This is not sustainable. Not-for-profits are trying to fill the gap of inadequate Social Funding. All levels of Government have to recognize that this is a crisis and they are not addressing the problem.

"The food bank model is one that is fundamentally designed to respond to an emergency need, but emergencies are supposed to end.

Instead, hunger is becoming an accepted ‘new normal’ in our province, and food banks are becoming a way to subsidize governments’ balanced budgets and corporations’ profit margins. This is not sustainable.”

-Carolyn Stewart, CEO – Feed Ontario

AS A PROVINCE, WE CANNOT LET 'HUNGER' BE NORMAL.

This is not a acceptable today, nor is it a future we want.

Health conditions or disability, taking care of children or other dependents, and age are the most common reasons food bank visitors cannot be employed. Not-for-profits are trying to fill the gap of inadequate Social Funding and other economic factors beyond most individuals’ control. All levels of government have to recognize that this situation is a crisis that requires immediate intervention.

Feed Ontario’s 2023 Hunger Report recommends the following actions:

Increasing provincial social assistance rates and reducing clawbacks.
Investing in building and maintaining social housing and improving tenant protections.
Reducing the precarity of the labour market through improvements to labour laws and reducing barriers to unionization.
Reforming Employment Insurance and improving access to tax benefits through automatic tax filing.

Sources:

Feed Ontario. https://feedontario.ca/news/ontarians-are-drowning-amid-surging-affordability-crisis/. Accessed Sept 2024

Feed Ontario. https://feedontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/FEED_OntarioHungerReport23.pdf. Accessed Sept 2024

Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. https://hamiltonpoverty.ca/preview/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/HRPR-Policy-Brief-The-Financial-Cost-of-Disability.pdf. Accessed Sept 2024

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