Clients using Manitoulin Food Bank continue to rise this fall
MANITOULIN—The trends provincially that show a significant increase in the number of people that have accessed emergency food support in Ontario last year—nearly 600,000 people—is something that Manitoulin Family Resources (MFR) Food Bank is also seeing.
“There has been an increased demand all fall, and we expect this to continue up to Christmas and beyond,” Marnie Hall, executive director of MFR, told The Expositor last week. “We have seen an increase in the fall from seeing about 330 clients per month to between 425-450 per month. And we are seeing with Christmas hamper numbers with referrals coming in for the food baskets we had planned for 1,000 but now we are already over 900 right now. We are preparing and expecting 1,200.”
“This is always a guess with referrals coming in, but based on past history the number will increase,” said Ms. Hall.
Feed Ontario released its 2022 Hunger Report on November 28, revealing that nearly 600,000 people accessed emergency food support last year, visiting more than 4.3 million times. This is an increase of 15 percent and 42 percent respectively over pre-pandemic numbers from 2019, and the sixth consecutive year that food bank use has increased. The report recognizes the impact that high inflation has had on food bank use in Ontario but points to decades of insufficient investments in quality jobs, the provincial social safety net, and affordable housing as the primary drivers of this growth.
“In looking at longstanding income security trends, data shows that it is harder for someone to break the cycle of poverty today than it was 30 or more years ago,” said Carolyn Stewart, executive director, Feed Ontario. “Ontario’s once-strong employment sector and social safety net have been weakened by decades of cost saving measures that have put low-income families in increasingly more precarious positions.”
The 2022 Hunger Report details data that shows that a child born to the poorest Canadians in the 1980s is 22 percent more likely to remain in poverty as an adult than a child born in the same conditions in the 1960s. While there are several complex considerations that contribute to this outcome, the report identifies a steady growth in low-wage and precarious jobs, cuts to the provincial and federal social safety nets, and a disinvestment in affordable housing that put thousands of Ontario families in financially precarious positions, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the report explains.
“Food banks are designed to provide emergency support,” said Ms. Stewart. “Today, however, the demands on food banks are not limited to emergency response. We are seeing food banks become increasingly relied upon to help fill gaps in the social safety net and subsidize government policy changes, budget cuts, and inadequate social support programs.”
As detailed in the report, despite Ontario’s low unemployment rate, workers still struggle to make ends meet as the labour market has shifted from well paying, stable, unionized jobs to those that tend to be part-time, temporary, and low paying. While manufacturing jobs were once the bedrock of Ontario’s labour market, gig work is on the rise with nearly one in 10 workers in jobs that are considered independent contractors and operate outside the protection of the Employment Standards Act. The impact that low-quality jobs are having on Ontarians is reflected in provincial food bank data, which shows a 47 percent increase in people with employment accessing food banks since 2018.
“Everything costs more,” stated Ms. Hall. “We have seen people who are employed and even if there is dual incomes in their household needing food bank support, and if you are single and do not have the supports either they are affected as well. It costs $4.29 for a loaf of bread. And it is not the fault of local businesses, as it costs them more to get the product to their stores; and if people opt to go off-Island the cost of gas makes it cost prohibitive as well. And the Island is certainly not exempt.”
Ms. Hall explained the MFR Food Bank Christmas hampers program will start on December 12, with all items at the Food Bank to be moved to Freshwater Community Church in Mindemoya. “We are moving all our food items from the food bank to the church, and baskets will start going out to agencies starting December 13.”
“We also rely on a lot of agencies to deliver the Christmas food baskets, and we coordinate this with the Rainbow District School Board (RDSB) as well, to have those get out first,” continued Ms. Hall. “We work hand in hand with our partners,” she said, noting the program will end on December 22 when all the Christmas hampers will have been delivered.
In addition to the rise in precarious employment, the report points to the erosion of essential workers support benefits and an inadequate social safety net as longstanding contributors to food bank use in the province. As detailed in the report, employment insurance is not easily accessible to most unemployed Ontarians, with only 27 percent receiving benefits, and social assistance rates continue to fall far below poverty line, with two out of three people who access food banks being program recipients.
To address escalating food bank use, Feed Ontario is calling on the province to take immediate action by providing gig workers with the same employment protections as other sectors; increasing social assistance rates to a basic standard of living; making housing affordable by investing in new and renovated affordable housing initiatives, and including people with lived experience in the design and development of programs and policies.
“What is most concerning about this moment in time is the deepening cracks in our economic foundations that make it more difficult than ever for the lowest income households to weather a new storm,” said Ms. Stewart. “Food banks were designed to respond in emergencies. Without immediate actions, food banks may be unable to meet the demand in the province should the current pressures on the system continue.”
In the report it notes food bank use remains at an all-time high with this year marking the sixth consecutive year of food bank use increases. Almost five hundred and ninety-thousand adults and children accessed a food bank in Ontario between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022, an increase of 15 percent over the last three years. Ontario’s food banks were visited more than 4,353,00 times throughout the year, an increase of 42 percent over the last three years. People with employment accessing food banks has increased by 47 percent since 2018.
Additional food bank data shows that between January 2022 and September 2022, the number of people accessing a food bank increased by 24 percent over the previous year alone. First time visitors have increased by 64 percent over pre-pandemic levels, with one in three visitors being those who had never turned to a food bank for assistance before. Ontario’s food banks were visited an average of 403,000 times per month, a 20 percent increase over the previous year and a 56 percent increase over the monthly average leading up to the pandemic.
In addition to unprecedented inflation rates and the rise in cost of living, there are several longstanding income insecurity issues and poor public policies that have contributed to the rise in food bank use: precarious employment, in the two years leading up to the pandemic, the number of people with employment turning to food banks for assistance increased by 27 percent, and an additional 16 percent between 2020-2022. In fact, one in 10 employed Ontarians are gig workers. Other factors noted in the report include inaccessible unemployment supports, and inadequate disability supports.
