Child hunger a major concern in Canada amid skyrocketing food prices
Neil Hetherington says his agency is seeing roughly 160,000 client visits per month _ up from about 120,000 per month in January. He says modelling the organization has done with CIBC predicts that to rise to 200,000 client visits per month in December.He says counterparts across the country tell him of similar spikes, with many reporting a 20 to 30 per cent jump in demand.
While many of these visitors have been on the margins for years, Hetherington says he’s also seeing new faces who otherwise have never turned to food charities, pegging the surge to a confluence of soaring food prices, gas prices, housing costs and ongoing labour uncertainty in some sectors.“We are seeing individuals who are working but their paycheque is not keeping pace with the cost of being able to drive to their place of employment, or be able to feed their children.
Back in British Columbia, Andrews says things would be much worse for her without the subsidy for her three-bedroom apartment, which brings rent down to $540 per month.But she says pre-existing financial woes deepened during the pandemic and have only gotten worse in 2022 as inflation also drove up the cost of gas and utilities.“I’m luckier than some because I live in housing so it’s subsidized but still you’ve got all the bills that go with it to keep the house running.
“I’m making enough to cover my bills and really not to afford food. That’s really what it comes down to.”
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