Historically, the donations that food banks received between Thanksgiving and Christmas provided enough resources to start the new year off strong.
Not now.
“[Usually], we would start being concerned about running out of food [donated at Christmas] at the end of June,” says Michael Labelle, board president of the West Island Assistance Fund in Montreal. “Then a couple years later, it was end of April, and a couple of years later it was end of February.”
Right now, individuals pay $5 a week to receive food from the organization’s food bank, and they can only use it once a week. The food bank supplies everything from milk to meat to produce, so people receive a lot for their money, Labelle says.
But with food donations down, the organization is considering raising the weekly fee to $7 to further offset its costs.
“We’re getting in less and we’re getting more demand,” Labelle said.
His experience is not unique. Food banks across Canada are scrambling to meet increased demand with fewer resources. Some have changed how they provide food and who receives it. Others are considering new ways to generate income.
Between 2022 and 2023, visits to food banks in Canada increased by 32 per cent. In March 2023, nearly two million people visited a food bank.
These trends are unsurprising, when many Canadians are struggling to meet their basic needs.
In spring 2024, 42 per cent of low-income Canadians said they would consider getting food from a community organization in the next six months, Statistics Canada says. But nine per cent of those in the highest income bracket said they were considering using community services to access food, and 14 per cent in the next bracket said the same.
Food banks are facing a “double-edged sword of more people coming for help, and the cost of the food being so much higher,” said Danielle McIntyre, executive director of the Interfaith Food Bank Society in Lethbridge, Alta.
“Even when the donations are coming in, they’re going out just as fast. We are starting to watch the bleed.”
‘Drive-thru model’
Covid forced many food banks to change how they provide food.
Clients can no longer walk through the tables at a food bank, picking out items, similar to at a grocery store. At the Southern Kings and Queens Food Bank in Montague, P.E.I., volunteers now bring food out to clients in a “drive-thru” model, says the food bank’s manager Norma Dingwell.
“[I]t works really well,” Dingwell said, but it is a struggle keeping it that way. In May 2024, the food bank served 328 families — almost double the 174 it served in May 2023.
In August, the food bank reduced the number of times families could visit from twice a month to once.
And the types of needs are growing too, says McIntyre.
“Food banks are gap-fillers,” she said. “[M]ore and more, because there are so many complex issues with our communities, we’re doing more social work.”
Food banks now also help people find housing or mental-health supports. At times, staff de-escalate tensions between clients.
At St. James Food Basket in Etobicoke, Ont., food bank visits are now staggered in 15-minute intervals to reduce tensions among some clients.
Marcia Powers-Dunlop, the food bank’s director and a former social worker, says she understands why some of the food bank’s growing clientele get frustrated.
“If you’re standing in the hot sun for an hour-and-a-half waiting your turn, because people are taking so long to pick which carrot they want, tempers are going to boil over,” she said.
Powers-Dunlop also sometimes manages community frustrations, too. Occasionally, area residents call in, saying they saw food bank clients driving fancy cars, or selling their food to others.
Powers-Dunlop says almost all food bank clients need the service. She tries not to get offended when she finds cans of tuna left behind, or hears people complain about not wanting the fresh produce available.
“They need some joy in their lives,” she said. “They need some control.”
The food bank only serves residents in specific neighbourhoods but does not ask for proof of income or determine financial eligibility.
“If they tell us they’re in need and they’re hungry, we will give [them] food,” she said.
Dingwall, in P.E.I., agrees. “Obviously they don’t have a whole lot, because they’re coming,” she said. “They deserve to have some level of dignity and privacy too.”
Hand up
At the Interfaith Food Bank in Lethbridge, clients are assessed for financial eligibility, says McIntyre. A financial threshold helps the organization be accountable to its donors and helps food bank clients be accountable for their actions, she says.
“We want to be accountable to our donors, but we also work from a ‘Teach a man to fish’ mentality here at our food bank, where we offer not just a handout but a hand up, and that hand up often requires people to be accountable for their own circumstances,” she said.
People rarely ask for help if they do not need it, she says. If someone does not meet the financial eligibility criteria, the food bank will direct them to services and supports that will help them address the reasons why they struggle to buy groceries, like poor budgeting or addiction problems.
Collecting this information also can help the food bank better advocate for policy changes, and know what types of grants to apply for.
Langley Food Bank, in Langley, B.C., has a similar process. Its executive director, Josh Mace, says people who need food will get something. But if people want to be regular clients, they need to show their after-tax income and necessary expenses.
“You find out their story,” he said. Sometimes people who would not meet the financial eligibility criteria still need help temporarily, and the food bank can provide that for them.
Nick Johnson, manager of member services at Food Banks B.C., a provincial organization of food banks, says he understands why some organizations request information about clients’ income. But the organization “strongly discourages” it, he said.
“There is a tension between dignity for the client and accountability to the donor,” he said. “I always want to lean in the way of the client,” he said.
Part of the future
The Langley Food Bank, where Mace works, has also seen more people need its services, but donations are strong. “We haven’t felt the pinch the way other [food banks] do,” Mace said. The Christian organization — which is not affiliated with Food Banks B.C. — relies on volunteers from a range of religious backgrounds and does not advertise its needs.
Several food banks are considering new revenue streams, says Johnson. Some are considering selling groceries at minimal cost — a service that would be separate from giving away donated food.
Other food banks are setting up ways for people who receive food from them to make a financial donation, if they want. “I think it is going to be a part of the future of food banking in a growing way,” he said.
Regardless of whether food banks assess people’s financial eligibility, McIntyre says food banks can be strong advocates for policy changes, like basic income, affordable housing or adequate social assistance.
“[Food banks] are built for emergency services and should not be relied upon to be a long-term solution,” she said.
“We’re supposed to be a country that educates our citizens enough to get good-paying jobs so that they can buy their own groceries. The current economic circumstances have not presented that opportunity to everyone, and so food banks will continue to fill that gap.”
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