Food insecurity, higher housing costs and economic hardships drove monthly visits to food banks in Canada to a record high of over two million this March, according to a report by Food Banks Canada released Monday.
The soaring figure reported in March 2024 marked a 90% increase compared to the same period in 2019.
Food Banks Canada Chief Executive Officer Kirstin Beardsley said the steep increase is proof that low-income Canadians have been pushed to "the brink” and they need help immediately, the Canadian Press reported.
Inroads into the crisis can be made if governments adopt a new rent assistance program for low-income Canadians to relieve the twin pressures of food and rent costs, the HungerCount 2024 report said.
The crisis has hit some groups particularly hard, including newcomers to Canada, the disabled, seniors and families with children.
A third of those using the good banks were children, which reached almost 700,000 so far this year. About 18% of the overall users were employed in low-wage jobs.
Beardsley said low-income Canadians should receive government "groceries and essential benefit” to help counteract the crisis.
"It’s really to offset those essential costs, the increases in rent that people are seeing, the increases of essentials like food,” she said.
While it is true that inflation is diminishing and interest rates are dropping, many Canadians cannot wait for the economic relief those factors promise.
"People need money in their pockets today,” Beardsley said.
