Canadian food banks are seeing more visits and Stratford is no exception.
According to Resource Coordinator for the Stratford House of Blessing Food Bank Aaron Balzer, the food bank has seen an average of 1,600 people visiting every month this year.
Visits continue to grow each year, including an increase of 30 per cent from 2023 to 2024.
“But in the five years leading up to 2024, we saw an increase of almost 200 percent.”
“Along with the rest of Canada and Ontario, we are seeing in our community that the need is growing.”
While the bank hasn’t come to the point of decreasing the amount of food they give yet, Balzer added they’re preparing for a possible decrease in donations as the rise in use goes up.
“We’re fully reliant on donations, and we’re grateful and hopeful that will continue, but we’re also keeping an eye on things and being aware that things might change.
“Many people in our community are living one paycheck away from needing to use the food bank or able to pay rent so any unexpected economic issues, whether it’s someone’s personal life or in our country, could see more people needing our food bank.”
This all comes as a new report from Food Banks Canada has found visits to Canada’s food banks hit close to 2.2 million in March, a five percent increase from last year and has doubled since 2019.
For Ontario, visits were up nearly four percent over last year and almost 125 percent from 2019.
For significant changes, Balzer suggests every level of government should take part in increasing access to affordable housing, hold big grocery store chains accountable for their grocery prices and making sure people aren’t being taken advantaged of, and school lunch programs.
For Stratford, he encourages people to donate food and funds to the food bank, and to stay engaged with government.
