International students in Metro Vancouver turn to food bank as prices keep climbing

Everything seems to be getting more expensive. Food, gas and housing prices are on the rise while paycheques are slow to keep pace. The CBC News series Priced Out explains why you're paying more at the register and how Canadians are coping with the high cost of everything.

When Kiranjeet Kaur moved to Canada in 2019 to go to school, she didn't expect she'd need to manage her expenses to the last dollar and still have no money to buy groceries. 

"When we come from India, we don't have work ... and we have a lot of expenses to manage, like our mobile bills, our rent and they run up our fees," Kaur, 21.

Roadblocks to putting food on her table include difficulty finding work and making sure she doesn't tap into money saved for tuition fees.

Kaur says international students spend around $1,000 a month on basics —  including housing, phone, internet, medical expenses —  while earning less than that. When she realized that she needed help with food, she discovered Guru Nanak Food Bank in Surrey and became a member.

Neeraj Walia, the director of Guru Nanak Food Bank, says he sees young people from around the world. 

"We have participants, especially international students, from everywhere, from India, from Bangladesh, from Nepal, Pakistan. We have [international students] from China, Japan, Norway" he says.

Walia says the food bank opened in 2020 with a focus on international students from South Asia, but soon learned that students from many different countries were facing the same issue of food insecurity. 

"They are really in the financial stress. They are only allowed to work for 20 hours [per week]. Rents are increasing as the house prices increase," Walia says.

He has heard multiple stories of international students trying to pay their tuition fee without going into more debt. He says paying tuition fees on time is more important for most of them than eating a healthy, balanced diet. 

Out of 2,200 food bank members, more than 1,500 are international students. To help international students in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior, Guru Nanak Food Bank has opened a second food bank in Abbotsford, and will open a third one in Kelowna this year.

A recent study from Ryerson University looking into the issue found that Kaur's experience isn't unique. 

Sutama Ghosh, associate professor in Ryerson's department of geography and environmental sciences, was one of four researchers who interviewed 30 international students. 

Many said families had taken out loans against their land — or sold land —  to pay for education, leaving students on extremely tight budgets as they try avoid causing more hardship.