Report sees largest increase on record, with Calgary in March seeing an 80-per-cent spike in use over the previous year
James McAra has been on the front line of Alberta's economic collapse witnessing what few thought possible: the food bank business is the only thing booming here lately.
The chief executive officer of the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank Society said as oil prices tumbled and natural gas tanked, the recession cascaded to every other sector in the city forcing people by the thousands to turn to his organization just to feed themselves. His food bank saw a 40-per-cent jump in demand for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, and last March alone, there was an 80-per-cent spike in use over the previous year.
"We're seeing working poor," Mr. McAra said. "If the economy in Calgary slides, unfortunately we have a very large number of people who are living very close to the edge. We have families who have two incomes in order to survive. If you take one income away from it, it sends you on the skids."
What's happening in Calgary is also playing out across the country, according to a new study.
Last March, 794,738 people received help from a food program, according to Food Banks Canada, a national charity and umbrella group, which released its annual HungerCount Tuesday. That's an 18-per-cent jump over the same month in 2008 - the largest increase on record and halting a four-year slide.
Every province but Prince Edward Island saw growth in demand, but visits were up most dramatically in Alberta, which posted a 61-per-cent rise.
Nova Scotia had a 20-per-cent increase, followed by 19 per cent in Ontario, 18 per cent in Manitoba and 15 per cent in British Columbia.
The report noted that the bulk of the national increase in sheer numbers was concentrated in the three provinces most weakened by the recession - Ontario, Quebec and B.C. - which also accounted for three-quarters of the total food bank use.
More than 72,000 people, or almost one in 10 of those looking to food banks for help, did so for the first time. That number was consistent across the country except in Alberta where the number of new clients reached 16 per cent.
And of the total, almost 300,000, or 37 per cent, were children.
We have families who have two incomes in order to survive. If you take one income away from it, it sends you on the skids James McAra of the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank Society
Jennie Bowes was working full-time and raising her toddler daughter when she first turned to the Calgary food bank in 2000 to bridge the gap between rent and child care. She never thought she'd go back, but Ms. Bowes went to the food bank last year when she couldn't find a job in the energy sector.
"I saw a man there in a business suit. You can tell the first-timers," she said. "You feel really ashamed. I know I did."
But Ms. Bowes, who now works for a land surveying firm, said it was blessing.
"If I didn't have the food bank I don't know how I would have managed," she said.
But this lifeline of the times is being stretched.
The study found that 28 per cent of food banks don't have enough funding and 31 per cent don't have enough food.
But not far from Alberta's oil sands, and despite helping more clients, Canada's premier boomtown doesn't have those problems.
"No matter what the economic situation is, they want to give," said Beth MacLean, executive director of the Fort McMurray Food Bank Association.
The report calls for a national poverty reduction and prevention plan.
"It's just really sad," said Katharine Schmidt, executive director of Food Banks Canada, "We live in such a prosperous country that there's this many people that are being challenged. I really believe that we can figure this out."
NDP MP Tony Martin hopes to introduce a private member's bill soon that will force Ottawa to move on poverty issues including income security, a national housing strategy and a social-inclusion plan for low-income children.
"The three things that we feel need to be addressed and need to be addressed immediately particularly given the extraordinary and numbing numbers we've seen this morning of people now turning to food banks," Mr. Martin said.
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