At Feed Ontario, we are always working to build the resiliency of our network of food banks to respond to new challenges. Food banks have done their best to serve their communities for decades, providing emergency food support through recessions and austerity, adapting through pandemics and natural disasters. A recent op-ed discussing rising food bank visits asks, “at what point does the system collapse?” This is a question that should weigh heavily on Ontario’s newly elected MPPs, as well as all politicians at the federal and municipal level. Either way you look at it, it would be an unprecedented disaster. Even the conservative estimate of only the “very likely” respondents would be a staggering 72% increase. If Statistics Canada’s survey proves to be accurate, and all those people need to use a food bank, that would quadruple food bank demand in six months. At the time, that was huge: it was a 10% increase from the year prior, and the largest single-year increase since the 2008 recession, when demand for food banks skyrocketed by 18%. So, when a recent survey by Statistics Canada shows that one in five Canadians are somewhat or very likely to use a food bank in the next six months, we must ask: is our country in an emergency? During the first year of the pandemic, just under 600,000 people used a food bank in Ontario – about one in 25 Ontarians. OPINION: Are we headed for a two-tiered food system?Īshely Quan Food banks are meant to be places people turn to in an emergency. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.

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