A new poverty report released by Food Banks Canada says poverty rates continue to rise and much of the country is on the brink of bankruptcy.
Almost half of all Canadians are feeling the financial pinch due to the cost of living, giving Canada a “D-” rating.
“This is not the report card we want parents to take home,” said Kirsten Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada.
The report says one in four Canadians experiences food insecurity, and 44 per cent feel they are worse off financially than last year.
“It's scary. We know that when economic times get tough, low-income people who are struggling to make ends meet have to endure it for a longer period of time,” Beardsley said.
The state receives a failing grade on housing costs, with the average household spending 46% of their income on housing, despite recommending that most households spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing costs. is spent on housing costs.
“That's almost half of your income, so what does that leave you to buy food?” asks June Muir, CEO of the Hub of Opportunities, an outreach center for the unemployed. “So that's why food banks are in the same boat as us.”
Mr Muir, who is also chairman of the Windsor-Essex Foodbank Association, said 211,331 people visited foodbanks in Windsor-Essex in 2023, an 11 per cent increase on 2022.
But a surprising statistic is 10,596 new customers looking for food in 2023, a 27% increase from 2022, she said.
Muir said all of this is putting a strain on food banks' supplies at a time when demand is reaching record levels.
“We are not the solution to poverty. And you know, our only hope is that governments will work together,” Muir said.
That's the call to action reinforced Wednesday by Food Banks of Canada.
“We're not just saying things are bad. We're not just complaining. We're saying we're willing to come out and work with you on solutions,” Beardsley said.
The group wants the provincial and federal governments to work together to set a goal of reducing poverty by up to 50 per cent by 2030, modernise Ontario Works and ODSP payments to better index them to inflation and invest more in affordable housing.
“This is unsustainable,” Beardsley said. “And at what point do we hit that wall and can't accommodate the growth?”
