Gerard Kennedy

Food banks feel effect of job losses
The Toronto Star – Wed Nov 18 2009
Byline: Richard J. Brennan
Source: Toronto Star

More Canadians than ever before are turning to food banks to make ends meet in recession-ravaged households, Food Banks Canada reports.

Close to 800,000 individuals, roughly the equivalent of New Brunswick’s population, visited food banks in March, according to the HungerCount 2009 survey released Tuesday.

That represents an increase of 120,000 users – or about 18 per cent – over March 2008.

“This is the largest ever year-over-year increase in food bank use on record, ” Katherine Schmidt, executive director of Food Banks Canada, a charitable organization that represents most of the country’s nearly 700 food banks and works to raise awareness of hunger.

Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank reports that its numbers mirrored the national trend and show no signs of slowing down as residents, some of whom had good jobs only months ago, line up for food.

Daily Bread is Canada’s largest food bank, with 800,000 client visits a year, so an 18 per cent jump equals a “huge number” of people in dire straits, said Gail Nyberg, executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank.

“It’s distressing and it is dramatic,” she told the Star.

“The people we are seeing now are people who were working, who have lost jobs or had hours cut so severely that they are now forced to used food banks.”

Nyberg recounted how friends of hers in the newspaper business went from being fully employed to losing their jobs and having to depend on a food bank within an 18-month period.

“He was laid off, she was laid off, EI (employment insurance) ran out,” she said, admitting it “did make me cry” to learn of their predicament.

Nyberg said the government and bankers can talk about the recession being over, “but it’s not about the recession, it’s about the recovery and it’s about employment opportunities and those employment opportunities are not there.”

Data for the HungerCount survey has been collected every March since 1997.

Schmidt said that national report shows hunger is a concern for Canadians from across the social spectrum.

“People needing food assistance could be your neighbour, could be the person across from you on the bus or a classmate of your son or daughter,” she said.

The increased demand on food banks, she said, is due in part to the fact that well-paid jobs in the manufacturing and forestry industries have been eliminated during the recession, only to be replaced by low-paying positions.

According to the survey:

Of the nearly 800,000 people who visited a food bank in March, 72,000 were there for the first time.

Close to 300,000 of the users were children.

Almost half of the households receiving assistance were families with children.

The need for food banks increased in every region of Canada with by far the biggest jump – 61 per cent – in Alberta, where roughly 54,000 people relied on food banks.

In Ontario, the one-month total climbed by 19 per cent to 374,230 users.

The report adds the recession has been particularly hard on food bank donations at a time of record need.

“In Ontario, we have witnessed an overall decline in food donations this year … In total, we estimate that food donations in the province have declined by about one million pounds,” the report stated.

New Democrat poverty critic MP Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie) said he found it “disturbing” to note 72,000 people visited a food bank for the first time.

“These figures are numbing, an unnecessary human tragedy only getting worse with this government’s inaction,” Martin said.

Among other things, Schmidt is urging Ottawa to implement a national strategy for poverty prevention and reduction, and to provide more low-income seniors with the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley turned aside suggestions that a poverty strategy is needed, and instead said the Conservative government is doing its part by creating jobs through its economic stimulus plan.

Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy (Parkdale-High Park), a former executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank, said there “is a direct-line connection between the failure of this (federal) government’s efforts to create jobs … and the food bank numbers.”

Schmidt noted that 50 per cent of 670 food banks in Canada are solely run by volunteers, and that one-third of them report not having enough resources – both food and funds. Food bank clients are given enough food for three or five days, and in some cases are limited to six visits a year. Toronto’s Daily Bread allows families or individuals to visit at least once a month.

“Food Banks Canada believes that it is unacceptable for anyone to go hungry in a nation as prosperous as Canada,” Schmidt said.

And she has fears the situation might be even worse than portrayed in the Hunger Count findings.

“For every person who turns to a food bank for help, several others in need of assistance do not ask for it. Canadians need to focus on long-term, policy- based solutions to resolve the problem of hunger.”

(c) 2009 Torstar Corporation

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