Canada had a record number of visits to food banks in the last year. There were 1.5 million visits in March 2022 - 15 percent higher than in 2021 and 35 percent higher than in 2019.
The report from Food Banks Canada took data from more than 4,750 organisations and noted that 20 percent of food bank visitors are children. High inflation, low social assistance, and increasing food and housing prices have all contributed to the increase in food bank usage.
CEO of Food Banks Canada, Kirstin Beardsley, said the numbers are devastating and are the highest they have been in Canadian history. She noted an increase in senior citizens who have shown up to food banks for the first time in their lives, students who have paycheques that cannot keep up with inflation and children that are going to school hungry.
Canada’s oligopoly has come under scrutiny for high-profit margins and increasing prices - causing an investigation into the market, similar to New Zealand's own Grocery Industry Report.
