Community News

Food Bank donations

Thanks to the generosity and support of our amazing members, at the end of last year, the Local Union Executive Board donated almost $100,000 to food banks and supportive services across Ontario.

A cheque for $3,000 is presented by Union Executive Board members to the staff at the Thunder Bay Regional Food Distribution Association.

Over the course of the pandemic, more Ontarians turned to Food Banks to help them survive as the people in this province continue to faces underfunded social programs, rising food prices, unaffordable housing, and a minimum wage that doesn’t cover basic necessities.

Volunteers/Staff at the Knight's Table in Brampton hold up a large blue heart sign that says Thank You.

Food Banks are incredible organizations, that often do far more than just provide food, and which are staffed with even more amazing volunteers, but Food Banks are not a permanent solution to food insecurity.

President Haggerty (left) delivers a cheque to the Sharing Place in Orillia.

In November 2021, Feed Ontario released its Hunger Report 1 containing dire statistics on Food Bank use in the province:

• 592,308 adults and children accessed a food bank in Ontario between April 1st, 2020, to March 31st, 2021 – an increase of 10% over the last year and the largest single-year increase since 2009.

• Throughout that same year, Ontario’s food banks were visited more than 3.6 million times, an increase of 12% over the previous year.

• The proportion of senior citizens accessing a food bank in Ontario has grown by 36% over the previous year, and 64% since 2008. Senior citizens are nearly twice as likely to access a food bank compared to adults under 65 years of age.

• 59% of food bank visitors cite social assistance as their primary source of income.

• A 44% increase in the number of people with employment accessing food banks for support in the four years leading up to the pandemic.

• 86% of food bank visitors are rental or social housing tenants with over 50% of food bank visitors citing the inability to adequately pay for housing and utilities costs as the primary reason for food bank usage.

Local 175 Executive Board members deliver a cheque to staff/volunteers at the Parkdale Rec Centre.

Secretary-Treasurer Tosato (right) presents a cheque to Community Cares in St. Catharines.

¹Feed Ontario: Hunger Report 2021. https://feedontario.ca/research/hunger-report-2021/#keyhighlights Accessed on Mar 14, 2022.