Canadian food banks are on the brink: ‘This is not a sustainable situation’

Food banks in Canada are being pushed to the brink with high demand and donations not keeping pace. Experts say it’s unsustainable.

The last four years have been financially tumultuous for Canadians. A global pandemic and rampant inflation have led to high grocery prices, with more and more people finding themselves unable to afford the basics.

But what happens when donations to help are not keeping up with demand?

“The word that I hear often with food banks across Canada is ‘unsustainable,’” says Kirstin Beardsley, Food Banks Canada CEO.

“When you see the rates of growth that we’ve seen and the strain, the amount of donations that we need to see coming through the door either stagnate or not keep up the pace, this is not a sustainable situation.”

Beardsley says that although food banks have always worked hard to meet the need, it’s becoming more challenging to get by.

“While folks and Canadians across the country continue to be generous, we are starting to hear that it’s not enough to meet the growing levels of demand that our food banks are facing,” Beardsley says.

“People’s budgets are stretched. They don’t have the space in their own budgets to make that extra donation because they’re really struggling to make ends meet.”

A 2023 report from Canada Helps found that 57.3 per cent of charities cannot meet current levels of demand and that 31.5 per cent of charities raised less money than the year before.

The report also showed that the number of Canadians relying on charities for basic needs was up eight percentage points in nine months to a total of 22 per cent of all Canadians.

Unlike other social services, food banks are primarily community-funded, with the majority of support coming from donors and collections by community