N.L. food banks are seeing increased demand — and operators blame the rising cost of living

Newfoundland and Labrador food bank operators say they blame the soaring cost of living and high food prices for a rise in new clients.

David Harvey, ministry lead for the Salvation Army food bank in Port aux Basques, says since Christmas, he's started seeing more new clients and returning clients who haven't availed of the food bank in a year or more.

"With costs and the way things are, people are finding it really difficult to make ends meet anymore," he told CBC News on Monday.

Harvey said the food bank serves about 75 to 100 families a month in Port aux Basques, a community of about 4,000, and the surrounding areas. He said the food bank has signed up five or six new clients in the past couple of weeks, an unusually high number, as the cost of living rises.

He pointed to the difficulty of paying for things like rent, a mortgage, gas, food, clothing, child care and schooling while making low or minimum wages. He said he doesn't believe the need for food banks will ever dissipate, but a higher minimum wage could help.

"We could bring that part up to a reasonable wage, a working wage and, you know, that may eliminate some of those issues."

Harvey said COVID-19 and its impact on businesses play a role in the demand on the food bank, as some employees see their income slashed.

"Businesses can't afford it anymore, to keep full staff," he said. "So now they're down to maybe half days or one day or two days a week versus maybe three or four days prior to this."

Jill Elson, community outreach worker for the Labrador Friendship Centre, co-ordinates the food bank serving the Upper Lake Melville region and Sheshatshiu. In January, she said, the food bank served 118 households in the Upper Lake Melville area and 10 families in Sheshatshiu.

Elson said demand has been rising at the food bank since the fall but jumped during the COVID-19 outbreak in late December. She said some families had to avail of the food bank because they couldn't work while in quarantine.

"It's just a hard time trying navigate the whole isolation period. Sometimes they won't be getting paid while they're off," she said.

Elson noted the price of food — especially fruit and vegetables — is higher in Labrador than in the rest of the province.

"Trying to juggle the every day family bills and all that stuff and trying to keep food on the table, the community's definitely feeling that extra strain," she said. 

Tracy Dawe, the manager of the Interfaith Goodwill Centre in Lewisporte, said the number of families coming to the food bank at the centre has been rising since October, and has gone up even faster this month.