B.C. food banks struggle to keep up as demand across Canada soars

New data shows food bank visits are rising across Canada, and British Columbia is no exception.

A new report from Food Banks Canada released Wednesday found that this year food bank usage rose to its highest level since the survey started in 1989.

The annual HungerCount report is based on surveys sent to food security organizations, tracking their usage in the month of March. This year's report found there were nearly two million visits to Canadian food banks in March 2023 alone, up 32 per cent from the same month last year.

Almost 200,000 of those visits were in British Columbia, a 20 per cent increase from March 2022 and 57 per cent higher than in March 2019.

Cynthia Boulter, chief operating officer with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, says more and more people are accessing its services each year, and with greater frequency than in the past as low wages and high rents squeeze people between inflation and other rising costs.

She says almost a third of people who use the food bank are employed. 

"This is no longer a service provided for people in between jobs or who are on some kind of assistance like EI or pensions," said Boulter. 

Boulter believes one way to deal with increased demand is through reclaiming food. 

"We make enough food in Canada for over 50 million people and there are about 40 million of us," she said.

The food bank works with an organization that reclaims food rejected by retailers for cosmetic reasons and donates it in large volumes. 

"There's a lot of food out there for them, and we will find it, and we will get it into their hands," Boulter said. 

Hajira Hussain, executive director of the Richmond Food Bank Society, says donations to the organization have not kept up with demand. 

The society has increased spending by about 51 per cent in order to feed their clients, says Hussain, which means digging deeper into saved funds. 

"Somehow we are managing," Hussain said. "We are just getting by."