Food Banks Canada is reporting that usage is up to crisis levels across Canada, something that is unfortunately not surprising to the CEO of the UHC Hub of Opportunities and President of the Windsor Essex Food Bank Association.
More and more people are accessing food bank services each year, and with greater frequency than in the past as low wages and high rents squeeze people between inflation and other rising costs.
The numbers, contained in Food Banks Canada's annual Hunger Count report, highlight how Canadians are more food insecure than ever before as governments have seemingly ignored "blaring alarm bells," the report said.
Seniors, single mothers, low-income workers, people on social assistance, and immigrants continue to drive food bank use, but this year's report showed a rise in use among working people in higher income brackets.
June Muir says in Windsor-Essex in 2022 they saw over 190,000 visits to the Food Bank Association.
That number is much higher this year, as they're already at 146,000 visits and we haven't even hit Christmas yet.
"So you can see that the need is definitely increasing, and this year already we can see that we've had an 8 per cent increase from the same period last year. And like I said, we have not even hit our busiest season yet," he said.
With high inflation still causing issues and the cost of living impacting families throughout the community, Muir and the teams at UHC and the Food Bank Association have had to get creative to meet the demand.
Earlier this month they held their first Pastabilities Luncheon, they're doing more fundraiser's, they're asking people to donate online, and they're also asking companies to consider conducting food drives to help out.
They also have a Leamington Regional Food Hub, where they rescue fresh produce through the Plentiful Harvest Program, which is then used to help people in Windsor-Essex county as well as food swaps to get items that might otherwise not get donated.
Muir says we're lucky to live in an area that has the largest number of green house growers in North America, because it benefits the hampers they hand out to people since they're full of nutritional food.
"We are helping twice a month, this is the UHC Hub of Opportunities. We are the hub for 15 food banks, we are here Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, however, we're also at Adie Knox arena on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So we bring food hampers with us."
Sometimes though they do run out of hampers, something Muir called devastating, but in scenarios like that she says they tell people to come back when they have more food available or refer them to other area food banks who may be able to help.
The Food Banks Canada report also calls for political action, where governments need to make "long term social policy investments" on affordable housing to increasing fixed income rates.
Muir says it really has reached a crisis situation, and she's constantly in contact with the local MPPs and MPs to give them their results and explaining where the challenges are.
Another worrying sign for the local area is that the Windsor Essex Food Bank Association saw a 22 per cent increase in first time users over the past year, which Muir believes signifies that more and more individuals are turning to food banks to sustain themselves.
"We're no longer there for an emergency food source, but we've become a necessity," she continued. "And that's pretty sad, so it's going to take everybody coming together to make change and hopefully we can find our resolve to help people who are struggling."
Muir says the Windsor-Essex community is a generous and caring community, and she hopes that people will step up again this year to support those in need.
More information and ways to give back can be found on the UHC website.
- with files from The Canadian Press