Posthaste: Food banks in 'crisis mode' as visits soar to record on high inflation

financialpost.com:

Food bank visits in Canada soared to a new record this year as the rising cost of living makes it more difficult for people to afford groceries.

Food banks are in “crisis mode” as visits to the facilities climbed to a record of almost two million in March, according to the Food Banks Canada HungerCount 2023 report, released this morning. That’s a 32.1 per cent increase from March 2022, and a 78.5 per cent increase from the same month in 2019.

The report, which counted visits at all of the more than 4,750 food banks and community organizations across the country, blames higher inflation, along with gaps in social supports, for the rise in demand.

“Relentless inflation and a broken social safety net has caused many people who never thought they would need a food bank to walk through the doors for the first time,” Kirstin Beardsley, chief executive of Food Banks Canada, said in a release.

The number of people with jobs who accessed food banks rose to 17 per cent this year — another record reading, the report said. That compares to 2019, when 12 per cent of visitors said a job was their main source of income.

Overall, food bank users cited high grocery prices, increased housing costs, low wages and reduced hours at work as the main reasons why they needed to access the pantries.

Grocery prices have been soaring over the past two years, climbing 18 per cent as of June, according to a Royal Bank of Canada report. Though price increases have slowed in recent months — rising 5.9 per cent year over year in September and 6.9 per cent in August — they still remain well above the headline inflation rate of four per cent. Food inflation peaked in January 2022, but high prices are here to stay, RBC economists said. That means