Food banks serving record numbers
Alberni Valley Times
Nov 18 2009

An increasing number of Canadians, many of whom have jobs, are turning to food banks to help ward off hunger, according to a new report that says usage jumped by a record 18% in 2009.

Almost four in 10 of the 794,738 people who visited a food bank in March were children and youth under the age of 18, and a significant number, almost one in 10, were first-time users, said the report, which was released Tuesday by Food Banks Canada.

The new figures represent an "abrupt reversal" of the downward trend in the use of food banks that began in 2004. All regions of Canada experienced greater demand for food bank services in March of this year, compared with March 2008. The sharpest increase was in Alberta, up 61%, followed by Nova Scotia at 20% and Ontario at 19.1%.

Katharine Schmidt, executive director of Food Banks Canada, blamed the spike in demand on the economic recession, which, she said, has thrown more people out of work or into lower paying or part-time jobs.

But Schmidt also told a news conference the need for food banks will not disappear with an economic recovery because the organization's annual surveys have shown hunger is a fact of life for too many Canadians even in good economic times.

"It is unacceptable that for most of the past decade, more than 700,000 people every month have needed help from food banks just to get by," she said.

The survey, dubbed HungerCount 2009, says the 18% increase in usage in March is the largest recorded since the organization began measuring demand in 1997. ….The president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the country's largest union, says the survey documents what workers see on the ground in their own towns and cities every day.

"The past year has brought massive job losses, workers' pension security is shaken, and now we learn that 18% more Canadians require food bank assistance," said Paul Moist, union president.

Almost one in five who used food banks in March said they had income from current or recent employment, and about 6% of households using food banks reported some type of pension as their primary source of income. Twelve per cent were aboriginals and 11% lived in small towns or rural areas.

New Democrat MP Tony Martin, the party's poverty critic, described the new statistics as an "unnecessary human tragedy." Along with Liberal critic Mike Savage, he called on the government to pay more attention to needy Canadians by enhancing everything from the EI benefits to early child learning opportunities….

Among other things, Food Banks Canada called for:

- a post-recession economic plan that takes into account of the needs of the most vulnerable members of society

- easier access to richer EI benefits

- an increase in the Guaranteed Income Supplement beyond the current maximum benefit of about $14,000

- a federal anti-poverty strategy, with measurable targets and timelines

- an increase in the National Child Tax Benefit to $5,000 per child from $3,300

- investment in quality, affordable child care and housing