Driven by cost of groceries, housing, rate nearly doubles monthly visits five years ago
She was eight years old and still adjusting to the shock of an Ottawa winter after recently moving from Halifax, where she and her mom arrived in Canada from Sudan about two years earlier. One day she saw her pregnant mother approaching their home, trudging through snow and carrying a “big bag of toys.”
Sindani teared up recalling the moment she realized her student loans were not enough to support herself and her unborn baby. She knew she should reach out for help, but feelings of shame were hard to overcome. That includes outsized demand from renters, racialized groups, people with disabilities, newcomers to Canada and residents across the North, and a “deeply concerning” need among seniors and families with children.
It says one-third of food bank clients were children — a trend that’s held steady but in 2024 totalled nearly 700,000 monthly visits — while nearly one-in-five clients, or 18 per cent, were employed. Nearly 70 per cent lived in market rent housing. Yesmil Pena, co-ordinator of a church-based food bank in north Toronto, said about 10 per cent of visitors to St. Philip Neri’s Table are older adults, most of them women. High-demand items include baby food, diapers for children and diapers for adults.
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