World Hunger - Canada

By Jerry Price - Oct 1, 2006 - comment

“At present, there are over 2600 food banks and related agencies operating in nearly 550 communities across Canada. According to the Canadian Association of Food Banks’ Hunger Count 2004, almost one million Canadians receive emergency food hampers each and every month, a figure which has risen 122% since 1989 (8.5% since 2003). Of these food bank recipients, a shocking 40% are children (317,242 children), 166,242 more then in 1989. Every year, approximately 3 million Canadians require the use of a food bank on a regular basis. Furthermore, we know that there are far more hungry Canadians than these numbers indicate.

“Why do people need food banks? The vast majority of food bank recipients are people who have bills to pay and families to feed and are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet.

“Despite the varied experiences of food bank users, all have the following in common:

  1. Individuals requiring the use of a food bank do not want to be there.
  2. These individuals do not have sufficient funds to cover all their basic needs.

“What many of us do not realize is that food bank recipients cannot depend on the food bank on a daily basis. Under ‘normal’ circumstances, there are limits with regard to the number of visits one can make to the food bank. Generally, most food banks allow one visit per month, providing only a 3 to 4-day supply of food. Under ‘normal’ circumstances, programs such as children’s breakfast clubs, run only Mondays through Fridays and are not able to meet the nutritional needs of children on weekends, at lunch and dinner, or in the summer time. In essence, food bank recipients are still hungry. In fact, almost 50% of adult food bank recipients plan to miss meals as a budget strategy. In 21% of cases, their children are forced to miss meals as a budget strategy. Parents will, however, do whatever they can to protect their children from hunger. By and large, food banks report that they are simply unable to meet the demand for food placed on them by their clients.”

Excerpted from Learn More About Hunger (Mazon Canada) [Accessed March 28, 2006]

Further Learning

Learn more about: Citizenship, Hunger/Homelessness

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