A historic number of people have relied on food banks across Canada in the past year, according to a new report, and local experts say one in 10 Toronto residents now rely on food banks to get through the month.

“It’s a bad situation nationally and it’s even more dire locally,” Neil Hetherington, CEO of Toronto’s Daily Bread food bank, said in an interview Monday.

“What we see in this national report is what we feel on the ground, day in and day out. And if anything, it underestimates what we see here in Toronto.”

Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount 2024 report indicates that there were more than two million visits to Canadian food banks in March 2024 alone. This figure represents an increase of 6% compared to March 2023 and of 90% compared to 2019. Food Banks Canada is a national charity.

The report also indicates that almost 30 per cent of Canadian food banks report running out of food. The report states that “there are signs that the food bank system is reaching its absolute limits.”

Hetherington said the Daily Bread Food Bank will release a report in November, Who’s Hungry, which says food bank use in Toronto increased 38 per cent year over year, comparing March 2022 to 2023 to March 2023 to 2024.

“Basically, it’s our higher cost of living, it’s our lack of affordable housing,” he said.

Currently, there are approximately 350,000 client visits to the Daily Bread Food Bank per month, with one client visit equaling one visit to a food bank. Of the 12,000 new people who come to the food bank each month, more than 50 percent have full-time jobs, while more than 60 percent have post-secondary education and are working, he said.

“The promise to go to school, get a job, work hard and everything will be fine is not being kept. Again, we know the solutions to this problem and we are simply not implementing them ” he said. “We can’t rely on charity to feed people.”

To maintain service levels, the Daily Bread Food Bank increased from $1.5 million per year in 2020 to $29 million per year in 2024. This money allows customers to get three days of food during a visit to the food bank.

Hetherington added that the results of the 2024 HungerCount, which shows the number of children, workers, renters and newcomers using food banks, also apply to Toronto.

The 2024 Hunger Report revealed that:

• A third of food bank clients are children, a figure that represents nearly 700,000 monthly visits in 2024.

• Nearly one in five food bank clients, or 18 percent, are employed, up from about one in 10, or 12 percent, in 2019.

• Nearly 70 percent of food bank clients live in market rental housing.

• “Worthfully inadequate” provincial social assistance is the most common source of income for food bank clients.

• 32 percent of food bank clients are newcomers to Canada, meaning they have been in the country for 10 years or less.

Food insecurity levels higher than imagined, official says

Ryan Noble, executive director of the North York Harvest Food Bank, said Monday that the food bank is seeing a record number of clients and has broken its record for total monthly client visits three times in the past year.

“We’ve been experiencing a chronic crisis of poverty and food insecurity for decades now. And what we’ve seen over the last two years is that it’s going to reach levels that we couldn’t have even imagined it a little while ago.” ” said Noble.

The report calls for several policy changes, including the introduction of a grocery and basic necessities benefit that would help struggling Canadians.

Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada, said in an interview Monday that government action is needed because the food bank system is under strain.

“We are advocating for an allowance for groceries and basic necessities to help people make ends meet today and have the money they need for things like housing and food,” said Beardsley.

“We also plan to support low-income workers. You shouldn’t have to stop at the food bank on your way home from work instead of the grocery store. We need investment in affordable housing. as Canadians, to focus on the extreme levels of food insecurity in the Far North. »

“We cannot rest on our laurels. We are not built as a system to cope with an ever-increasing level of demand.”

Beardsley said food insecurity and poverty reduction should be major issues in any election and is asking for the public’s help to ensure that addressing systemic issues is a priority for government officials.

The report, a research study using information from 5,500 food banks and community organizations across Canada, examined the impact of rapid inflation and inadequate social support on poverty, food insecurity and hunger in Canada.