“We’re having such hard trouble with the basics,” said David Wood, a co-ordinator of the food bank run out of St. Ann’s parish in downtown Toronto. “The baskets are just ridiculously thin.”
According to Statistics Canada, the price of food has increased 19 per cent over the past five years while all other items used to calculate the consumer price index averaged only a 10.7-per-cent increase. A loaf of bread, the classic staple, sold on average for $2.49 a loaf in 2009 compared to $2.87 today according to Statistics Canada. Similarly, Corn Flakes rose from an average price tag of $4.05 to $4.85 with a litre of partly skimmed milk increasing $0.17 and a dozen eggs jumping from $2.60 to $3.24 over the same period of time.
These figures help explain why Wood, a 10-year volunteer at St. Ann’s, sees more people each Saturday visiting the food bank.
“It’s putting a lot more stress on people,” he said. “I’m getting more and more people all of the time, especially families. In the last two months my families have gone up by 30 per cent.”
Wood added that seniors surviving on pensions are coming out in greater numbers as increased prices at the grocery store force them to stretch their already thin income even further.
According to the Ontario Association of Food Banks, this kind of increased demand is happening across the province.
Sdcleir Schennon is one of the local seniors who began using St. Ann’s food bank last year after struggling to pinch enough pennies from his pension.
“I can tell anyone one thing for sure, this is a blessing,” the 71-year-old Schennon said of St. Ann’s. “The pension doesn’t go far but I make do.”
Despite having a tight budget Schennon said he tries to give $5 or $10 each week to the parish that supports him. Not only does he give back with his dollars, Schennon also tries to share what he gets from the food bank with his daughter, who’s raising three children on her own, and his two neighbours at the senior centre where he lives.
“I feel proud of what I’m doing. I share it with them because God helped me.”
Mario D’Alimonte has been volunteering at St. Ann’s for the past three years. D’Alimonte said the St. Ann’s food bank is “incredibly essential to the community.”
That’s why he’s concerned about the quantity of goods they’ll have on hand during the final weeks of summer, a traditionally high demand season for all food banks.
“It’s usually summer that is the most trying time because that’s when need goes up and donations go down,” said Erin Fotheringham, a spokesperson from the Ontario Association of Food Banks. “Some of the busiest months are actually in the summer when kids are home. Usually they would be fed at meal programs through school (but) now they are at home and they don’t have that so their parents have to look for other ways to provide food on the table.”
To help ensure the limited amount of goods available is distributed fairly, volunteers at St. Ann’s pre-package milk crates with non-perishable goods rather than let clients pick and choose everything. They also keep track of clients’ income, rent and family size which determine how frequently they can visit and how much food they get.
“We don’t want people to take advantage of the food bank,” he said. “We look at income and what they pay for rent and based on that we determine how often they can come. Some people are allowed to come once a month and some people are allowed to come four times a month.”
St. Ann’s has been getting by with a little help from its friends. Partnerships with organizations such as the Good Shepherd Centre, St. Francis Table and Second Harvest are the backbone to the food supply at St. Ann’s.
“They’ve been very good to us and are like a Godsend,” Wood said. “If I had to survive on the stuff that the Daily Bread Food Bank sent me... we’d never make it.”
This kind of sharing is encouraged by the Ontario Association of Food Banks to ensure the most mouths are fed with the least amount of waste as prices of food, and thus demand for food bank services, continue to increase.
“We always encourage food banks to share their food within our network,” said Fotheringham. “We might as well share the wealth. We’re all in the same business, which is feeding people.”
While Wood does acknowledge that their partnership organizations are also feeling the pressure of rising food prices, he said those relationships and a faith in God helps to subside his concerns.
“We always have concerns and issues but for the grace of God we always get through.”