Lack of government help drives more to food banks: report
OTTAWA — More Canadians are relying on food banks to feed themselves, a report released Tuesday suggests.
The report by Food Banks Canada says last March some 863,492 people turned to a food bank, a 1.3 per cent increase over March 2015 and a 28 per cent rise over 2008.
“More than 300,000 of those helped were children,” said Shawn Pegg, the organization’s director of policy and research. “That’s enough kids to fill 6,000 school buses.”
The report found that food banks in eight of 10 provinces saw increased traffic with the biggest jumps in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and the three territories.