'Everyone is needing help,' northern Ontario food banks say their numbers are higher than ever
CBC
Food banks in northeastern Ontario say they're feeding more people than ever before, and many of them are first-time users.
The North Bay Food bank had 171 new registrants in all of 2022, said executive director Debbie Marson.
From January to October 2023 there were 299 new users at the food bank.
"This is telling me that everyone is needing help," Marson said.
"Like when we listen to people's stories, they're working households, they're trying to make ends meet with the rising cost of everything, you know, food, utilities, housing. They just can't make ends meet on a regular basis."
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The North Bay Food Bank's numbers align with Feed Ontario's latest Hunger Report.
It found that more than 800,000 people across the province accessed emergency food support in the last year, visiting food banks more than 5.9 million times.
Those numbers represent an increase of 38 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively, over the previous year, and the largest single-year increase ever recorded by Ontario's food bank network.
"Ontarians are struggling to get ahead," said Carolyn Stewart, CEO at Feed Ontario, in a press release.
"While we are seeing low unemployment rates across the province, working Ontarians are having trouble earning enough income to afford today's cost of living. As a result, more people than ever before are turning to food banks for help."
The report found that more than one in six food bank visitors in Ontario cited employment as their main source of income. That's a 37 per cent increase over the previous year.
Dan Xilon, the executive director of the Sudbury Food Bank, said seniors have been a growing group of users at the food bank.
He said seniors made up around five per cent of food bank users in previous years, but now they're closer to 12 or 13 per cent of all people who use the services.