Simon Malsi hopes to get a few extra hours off work on Thanksgiving so he can afford to put a holiday meal on the table.
The personal support worker said he has been trying to secure more shifts to make ends meet as his family struggles to keep up with the rising cost of living in North Toronto.
Even on his wife’s part-time salary, Malsi said rent, gas and groceries have become so expensive it’s hard to keep his two-year-old son and five-year-old daughter well fed.
There are plenty of other families in the same position this holiday season, food bank workers say, as staggering rates of inflation increase demand for their services and decrease the purchasing power of their donated dollars.
Malsi showed up at the North York Harvest Food Bank for the first time Tuesday carrying a checkered plastic bag as volunteers helped him choose items from the shelves.
For a family of four, a standard purchase might include four packages of dry instant noodles, a jar of peanut butter, two cans of tuna, two bags of lentils, two packages of spaghetti, a carton of milk, a box of yogurt, a handful of fresh vegetables and a few other staples.
The supplies are meant to last three days, but many families stretch them for longer.
Malsi said she hopes the supplemental food will leave enough room in her budget to buy a rotisserie chicken for Thanksgiving dinner.
“It’s very good what we have (this resource). You can help people in need like me,” Malsi said. “We need other sources.”
North York Harvest Food Bank is among a number of organizations across the country that have reported a steady influx of new users since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, 3,500 families visited the network for the first time, said Henry Chiu, director of development and marketing. He hopes that number could continue to rise amid growing concern about a looming recession.
So far, the community has stepped up its generosity to meet the greatest need, Chiu said.
The food bank relies heavily on financial donations to support its “choice” model, which, similar to a grocery store, allows users to choose their own food from a variety of available options.
This bulk purchasing power has cushioned the blow of rising food costs, Chiu said, while allowing customers to tailor their selections to their dietary needs and restrictions.
Still, he said, the organization is feeling the crisis in many aspects of its operation, including increased fuel bills for its truck fleet.
The North York Harvest food bank tends to see a spike in giving during the holidays, Chiu noted, and is concerned about a possible dip when giving season ends, particularly if rising costs cut into donors’ checkbooks.
As financial stress mounts, he said, Canada needs to look beyond short-term fixes to address systemic causes of food insecurity, such as lack of access to affordable housing.
“A food bank is a necessary solution but just a Band-Aid,” Chiu said. “We need to have a stronger social support network.”
Meanwhile, some food banks say their grocery bills have skyrocketed as they work to feed more people with fundraising dollars that don’t go as far as they used to.
In 2019, the Food Bank of Calgary’s budget for food purchases was $1.7 million, said communications coordinator Betty Jo Kaiser.
The organization previously projected that it would spend $2.4 million on emergency food baskets in 2022, it said. Now, that estimate has nearly doubled to around $4.5 million.
“We’re feeding thousands of people a week right now… That’s what we’re working on day in and day out,” Kaiser said. “Imagining something worse in the future is not possible for me at the moment, because the immediate demand is so massive.”
The Allan Gardens Food Bank in downtown Toronto is also under pressure from increased demand and inflated food costs, President Meryl Wharton said.
Still, the group hopes that a last-minute gift will allow them to do something special for the 900 customers waiting this week.
Before COVID-19, the food bank used to serve a whole turkey or chicken for Thanksgiving, Wharton said. Now, they are waiting to see if a donation arrives in time to add poultry to the menu, he said.
At a minimum, he said, the food bank will do everything it can to make sure no one is left without a holiday meal.
“We always make sure customers get something,” Wharton said.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on October 6, 2022.