Food Banks need our help

We are in near the end of summer, we have had warm weather and summer holiday are here, but food bank donations plummet.

And yet, more than 900,000 Canadians — about 340,000 of them children — continue to rely on food banks to get by, according to Food Banks Canada, a national organization representing 550 food banks across the country, serving 85 per cent of the people who use them.

The summer months are often most difficult for struggling families because children no longer have access to free or low-cost school breakfast, lunch and snack programs, says Food Banks Canada spokeswoman Marzena Gersho.

“When the warm weather comes, people think about getting outside in the sun and going on holidays,” she says. “The issue of hunger falls off the radar and the level of donations drop.”

Although the organization doesn’t keep statistics, anecdotally Gersho knows food banks scramble to keep up with demand over the summer.

Thousands of Canadians live in a state of food insecurity, which means they do not have reliable access to adequate amounts of safe, good-quality, nutritious food. The root cause of hunger in Canada is low income, which consistently affects more than four million of us at any given time.

Food banks are an important method of addressing this need. Each month, over 900,000 people turn to food banks for help; more than one-third are children and youth.

The people who visit food banks come from all backgrounds. They include families with children, employed people whose low wages do not cover basic living essentials, individuals on social assistance, and Canadians living on a fixed income, including seniors and people with disabilities. 

The need for food security does not end because we are on holiday and enjoying the summer sun. Take some time and help your local food-bank, either by volunteering or donating food or money. Every little bit helps.