KAMLOOPS — One million Canadians access a food bank every month. That’s according to information gathered through the 2018 HungerCount Survey.
Every year, Food Banks Canada collects data from food banks across the nation, determining who is accessing this service.
35 per cent of people visiting food banks are children and 45 per cent are single adults.
In Kamloops, the data mirrors the national statistics.
The Kamloops Food Bank is considered an essential service for the thousands of people who access it each year, and the need is increasing.
“We certainly are not seeing a drop in any demographic,” said Executive Director, Bernadette Siracky. “So, children are going up, we have a similar profile when it comes to adults 45 to 60, our senior population is going up, so we’re not seeing a drop in the usage of the Kamloops food bank.”
Siracky says seniors are also accessing the Kamloops Food Bank in higher numbers, but she believes even more are in need.
“We’re seeing an increase here in seniors using our service but what we’ve also noticed across the country is they are underrepresented in their use of food banks,” Siracky said. “Seniors are very weary of coming to a food bank to get the support that they really do need.”
Across Canada Seniors represent 6.3 per cent of food bank users, while representing 16.9 per cent of the population.
In order to address the issue, the Kamloops Food Bank provides a time just for seniors to access the food bank.
But, Siracky says mobility may also pose a problem.
“We’ve been asked several times are we able to start a delivery service, can we start getting product to seniors in their homes? And I think mobility is a huge issue for seniors, and for us that’s very difficult to consider when you think about the human resources that would be required to complete something like that,” she said.
HungerCount 2018 shows the far reach of poverty in B.C. and across the country.
Food Banks Canada has come up with a number of recommendations for federal policy.
“What they’ve come up with in this report in particular is to have a focus on affordable housing, affordable childcare and a higher basic income,” Siracky said.
Poverty won’t be eradicated overnight, but Siracky says feeding people is a small first step.
“People don’t have food in their house,” she said. “Let’s feed them while we’re looking at the longer-term solutions and bringing forth ideas that are research-based, that have data behind them to our provincial government, to our federal government to say, ‘hey, this is what we think some of the solutions might be.’”
