Demand at Edmonton’s Food Bank is reaching levels never seen before, and the need is causing so much strain that the food bank will soon put limits on how often clients can use its services.
Executive director Marjorie Bencz said about 45,000 people a month are now being served through the food bank’s hamper program, roughly 10,000 more compared to this time two years ago.
“We’re running at capacity all the time,” Bencz said in an interview.
“This is not sustainable over time.”
The food bank started reducing the size of its hampers in January 2023 to accommodate growing demand.
Among other pressures, the city’s population has increased by nearly 13 per cent in the past five years, according to provincial data.
Currently, there are no restrictions on the number of hampers a client can receive.
But starting as early as February, the food bank will have to limit the number of times that people can use it, Bencz said.
Decisions will soon be made on restricting the number of visits, though details still need to be ironed out over whether there would be monthly or yearly constraints.
“It’s a rough situation for us because, of course, we don’t want people going hungry in our community. At the same time, we have to be able to serve as many people as we can,” she said.
Food banks across Canada are facing big challenges as demand soars, thanks in part to the high cost of living and inflation.
According to the 2024 HungerCount report, 56 per cent of food banks across Canada either reduced frequency of service or gave out less food; in 2021, it was 20 per cent.
Calgary’s Muslim Food Bank has no plans to introduce similar limits, according to operations assistant Mariam Wajhi, but it is seeing the pressure.
The food bank, which offers halal options but is open to everyone, distributed hampers to 30 families when it opened in 2022, she said.
Now, it is at capacity with 300 families registered to receive monthly hampers and another 200 families on the waitlist.
“I have heard that some families, they said that ‘We go to other food banks and they’re at their full capacity so we looked up online and we saw you guys,'” Wajhi said.
“Every day, we have 10 to 12 walk-in families.”
While there is some concern that the organization might not be able to keep up with growing demand, she said it will continue to rely on support and donations from the community.
Food bank a lifeline for some
The Veterans Association in Edmonton, which provides monthly food hampers to military members, is also seeing exponential growth in demand.
Roughly three years ago, the Veterans Association food bank was filling 55 hampers a month; now, it expects to surpass 300 hampers in December.
“It’s almost scary just trying to keep up with it. Fortunately we’re able to get some very, very good donations that come in to help us,” said outreach lead Chris Casey.
“But at the same time, you have to worry about a society where we have that many people in that kind of trouble.”
Casey said growth is expected to continue into the new year and the organization is hoping to keep up by leaning on donations.
Eric Monahan and his large family started using the Veterans Association food bank about two years ago. Monahan retired from the Royal Canadian Navy in 2019.
What he thought was a one-off for a Christmas hamper ended up becoming a monthly routine. He said that some months, it was the difference between succeeding and failing.
“I’m the breadwinner and our incomes aren’t really … they’re barely making it,” he said.
Monahan has an 11-person household to support and said it is “consistently frustrating” to try and stretch the family’s income.
“Every time I seem to go out, the prices are consistently going higher,” he said.
Monahan said that without the hampers, his family would have to make difficult decisions and he is grateful for the support.
“When we first got this assistance, my pride was [getting] the better of me, that there’s other people that are more unfortunate that would need this help,” he said.
“But it has become our lifeline.”