Food Banks face higher costs, lower donations as demand rises
Food Banks face higher costs, lower donations as demand rises
The Food Bank of Waterloo Region has not been able to purchase the same volume or quality of food due to higher food prices, but the demand for usage has only been increasing.
This comes as a new report from Feed Ontario, formally the Ontario Association of Food Banks, said this is the sixth consecutive year that food bank use has increased across the province.
“At the grocery store bins, we are definitely down," said Kim Wilhelm, the interim CEO of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region.
“We needed to make a significant purchase of canned fruit, and the only canned fruit that we could get at the time was canned pineapple,” said Wilhelm.
Connie Becker has been volunteering to organize food at House of Friendship for nearly 20 years but has also been on the receiving side.
“Everyone needs help. That's just the way things are nowadays. There's no shame in it, some people think there is, but I think there's no shame in it,” said Becker.
Fellow volunteer Dean Schmidt said he also takes a food hamper home from time to time.
“With the way things are right now, it’s hard to be able to put food on the table,” said Schmidt.
Not only is food bank use on the rise, but the statistics of who is using food banks have also been shifting.
“When we talk about need and poverty, they are not always visible. We are seeing working families attend our food programs,” said Dauda Raji, community development manager at House of Friendship.
According to feed Ontario, which surveyed food bank users between April 2021 and March 2022, roughly 46 per cent said they needed assistance because of the cost of food.
Feed Ontario said the government needs to do more.
“The social safety net has been dismantled over time, and during this time of uncertainty, food banks are having to fill the gaps left by poor public policy decisions,” said Carolyn Stewart, Feed Ontario executive director.
The Biden administration is considering a plan to shoot down a large Chinese balloon suspected of conducting surveillance on U.S. military, by bringing it down once it is above the Atlantic Ocean where the remnants could potentially be recovered, according to four U.S. officials.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
The oldest preserved vertebrate brain has been found in a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull that was removed from an English coal mine over a century ago.
In the field of cancer treatment, nothing is more important than diagnosing and treating the problem as quickly as possible — but according to new survey data, about one in four Canadian cancer patients report that they are still experiencing cancelled or postponed appointments.
A River Canard, Ont. woman is on a mission to identify several unknown people in a handful of old photographs she said she found in a box inside her attic. She said she discovered the pictures and postcards while decluttering her home as part of her New Year’s resolution, noticing many date back to the mid 1940s.
Parents of students with special needs are speaking out about a decision by the Simcoe County District School Board to change transportation options starting Monday.
An investigation that lasted almost two years has resulted in moose hunting violation convictions for six people and a lodge in Red Lake in northwestern Ontario.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The owner of Radical Gardens, a restaurant in Timmins said she's experienced nineteen robberies over the last eight years; with the most recent one taking place in the early morning hours Friday.
A spokesperson for the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) says Metrolinx began cutting down historic trees at Osgoode Hall in Toronto on Saturday before the Ontario Superior Court could hear an injunction to prevent their clearing.
Joey Votto has been coming to the Annex Chess Club (ACC), just north of Bathurst and Bloor streets, every week for a few months now, according to Supol.
Residents from Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador are waking up this morning to more extreme cold weather. Emergency officials warned people to seek shelter and monitor for frostbite if they had to be outside overnight, as the temperature across much of Eastern Canada was expected to feel like -40 C to -50 C with the wind chill.
Another property reportedly belonging to a family member of Tony Accurso was the target of an arson attack in Laval early Saturday morning. The Laval fire department responded to a call at 3:22 a.m. about a fire at the building located at 1410 Jaffa Street in the Saint Rose district in the northern part of Laval.
The first North Atlantic right whale to be entangled in connection to Canada’s lobster fishery in over five years has been successfully rescued by marine mammal rescue responders in the United States.
WINNIPEG -- An Indigenous organization is spearheading efforts to develop a system that could make it easier to flag when a person experiencing homelessness is missing.
Winnipeg police released a new image of a 31-year-old woman who has been missing since early last year on Friday in the hope it may generate new information on her whereabouts.
Alberta's high court is being asked to overturn a review board decision relating to the stabbing deaths of five young people at a Calgary house party on the grounds the former provincial justice minister interfered.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes kept Connor Bedard off the scoresheet for the first time in 36 games, but it wasn't enough, as the 'Canes lost 3-2 to the Regina Pats Friday night.
A man who took part in four traffic-stopping protests in Metro Vancouver in an effort to save old-growth forests has been given a conditional sentence and six months' probation by a provincial court judge.
Vancouver Canucks faithful have seen it all during yet another disappointing season - and several say they're frustrated not only with the on-ice performance, but with a lack of answers from the team's front office.
