A new report has highlighted how much food bank usage has increased across Canada. (Photo: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Food bank visits double in Lethbridge, hit record highs nationally

Oct 26, 2023 | 6:06 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Canadians continue to turn to food banks in ever-increasing numbers.

A new report from Food Banks Canada shows that the same also continues to be true in Lethbridge and across Alberta.

The Hunger Count 2023 compares food bank usage in March 2023 to the same month four years ago.

Across Canada, there were a total of 1,935,911 visits to food banks this March, marking a new national record. That represents a 32 per cent jump compared to 2022 and 78.5 per cent from 2019.

Although Alberta saw a smaller one-year increase of 12 per cent to 174,311 this year, it is also an increase of 94.1 per cent from the last pre-pandemic year. Other provincial food bank stats include:

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• 33 per cent are children
• 43.8 per cent are single-adult households
• 42.4 per cent are on social assistance or disability-related supports
• One out of six are employed

It was a similar situation for the Interfaith Food Bank in Lethbridge. A total of 2,874 visits were made to the group this March, jumping 68 per cent since 2019. Numbers for the Lethbridge Food Bank were not provided.

Interfaith, however, also released some more recent figures as well. In September this year, usage climbed up to 3,415, doubling from September 2019.

The local food bank distributed 30 per cent more hampers than in the year before.

Interfaith said food banks are in “crisis mode” due to “relentless inflation and a broken social safety net.”

Several Canada-wide recommendations were made in the Hunger Count report:

• Rebuild the broken social safety net
  • Increase benefits for seniors and those living with disabilities
  • Continue top-ups to tax-related benefits until inflation has returned to two per cent
  • Allow all households with low incomes to access non-cash benefits currently only available to those on social assistance
  • Make single adults with a low income a priority in future poverty reduction measures
  • Develop new mental health measures, focusing on populations with low incomes
  • Ensure all federal benefits are indexed to inflation
• Get serious about affordable housing
  • Examine the potential of a national rent assistance program
  • Develop tools to address the costs of housing
  • Build more supportive housing for people with mental and physical health disabilities
  • Create tax policies to spur the development of purpose-built market rental housing
  • Introduce an action plan to support students who are struggling with housing and food insecurity
• Support for workers with low incomes
  • Develop a new program within EI for people aged 46 to 65
  • Broaden the EI qualifying definition of “employment” to include self-employed and precarious work
  • Reduce the number of qualifying hours of employment needed to qualify for EI
  • Expand the Working-While-on-Claim provisions within EI to allow people to retain their benefits while working temporary or part-time jobs
  • Extend the maximum duration of EI benefits from 45 to 52 weeks
  • Work with provinces and territories to reduce claw-back and improve harmony between social assistance and EI
  • Increase the Canada Workers Benefit

The full Hunger Count 2023 report can be accessed on the Food Banks Canada website.

READ MORE: Interfaith Food Bank named 5-Star, Top 100 Charity

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