HungerCount 2024: We were not the only food bank in Canada to run out of food.
things are not getting any better.
In its news release, Food Banks Canada stated that food bank visits have almost doubled (+90%) in five years.
Locally, the numbers do not lag far behind these national statistics.
Food Banks Canada completes their annual Hunger Count data collection and analysis in March. In March 2019, the Red Deer Food Bank served a total of 621 emergency food hampers. By March of 2024, 1,124 hampers were distributed, an increase of 81% over just four years.
the local impact.
“We’ve been saying for a while that we appear to be serving twice as many people as we did five years ago,” says Mitch Thomson, Executive Director of the Red Deer Food Bank. “We are not far off in our estimates. There are seasons where demand can fluctuate, such as times when people may be able to find seasonal work, which alleviates some of their immediate concerns. But the trend is most definitely on a steep increase.”
It took around 25 years for food banks to record 1 million visits per month and just 5 for that to almost double. Food insecurity is spiralling out of control.
what happens when food banks run out of food?
Food Banks Canada also stated that their surveys indicated that nearly 30% of food banks across Canada have reported running out of food through this past year. Red Deer Food Bank includes itself in those numbers.
“Certainly, we’ve seen twice now in under a year a time when the shelves in the warehouse were absolutely empty of stock,” Thomson adds. “We make the community aware of the situation, and we’re always astounded at the generous and energetic response from the community to step up in our times of need.”
this community steps up when it is needed. thank you.
Nationally, one-third of food bank users are children. However, in Red Deer, that number is pushing up to nearly 40% of the clientele who rely on the Food Bank to eat.
“The problem is not getting any better, and we don’t see it improving any time soon,” concludes Thomson. “Food Banks Canada has indicated that food banks across the country work to address food insecurity in both the immediate and long term. Here at the Red Deer Food Bank, we are working on social enterprises that provide food services to support our hamper program, and now we are developing our own food production capacity to secure sources of fresh produce as well.
“These are just a few of the positive steps we can take to help alleviate hunger today and prevent hunger tomorrow. But we need continuous, year-round support to get us through those lean months.
“We want to prevent having to post more pictures of empty warehouse shelves on social media. And we can do that together, as a community.”
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