York Region food banks see ‘disturbing’ trend among people struggling to make ends meet

"When they’re earning a little bit of money, it’d be not enough to live off of, but enough to lose some of their benefits."

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 11, 2019
Sheila Wang

Hiding among the monster homes, fine dining restaurants and luxury cars is a glaring reality in York Region communities: more people are going hungry every day.

Local food banks across the region served about 20,000 individuals from January to November, a whopping 26 per cent spike from the year before, according to the latest statistics from Food Bank of York Region.

The number of hungry people has been on the rise for years in the region, said Alex Bilotta, executive director of the regional food bank network, formerly known as LifeCorps.

The sharp growth rate in the region’s food bank usage seems to overshadow that of Ontario overall where food pantries have seen a 1.8 per cent increase between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019 over the previous year, according to a new report.

The rise of the ‘working poor’ puts pressure on Vaughan food banks
Feed Ontario’s annual hunger report, which collects data on food bank use and analyzes trends, says food insecurity is “directly linked to poverty,” which affects one in 10 Ontarians.

A poor quality labour market and insufficient support from assistance programs and government benefits were among the major factors behind the rising need for food bank use in York Region as well as the rest of the province, the report finds.

“The trend is really disturbing,” said Lee Reynolds, manager of Richmond Hill Community Food Bank. “We’ve never had a month when less people came to us.”

Serving the community for over three decades, the food bank in recent years finds itself scrambling for more food donations despite the continued support from residents, businesses and schools.

Last December, Reynolds reached out to yorkregion.com for help as the food bank was on the verge of emptying out the 2,000-square-foot warehouse to meet the growing demand.

That month alone, they doled out food to 1,155 needy individuals in the community, and it wasn’t even the busiest time last year.

The dire situation did not end there.

This past November, the food bank served 1,472 individuals, the “highest number ever” served in a month in 32 years.

Vaughan Food Bank -- not a member of the York Region network -- has also witnessed a staggering demand coming from various agencies across the region. The food pantry is currently supplying two million meals a year on average on the “low side,” said Peter Wixson, executive director of the food bank located in the region’s largest municipality.

Meanwhile, Mosaic Interfaith Out of the Cold Program -- an organization co-ordinating shelters and meal programs for the homeless in York Region -- supported 546 individuals this year, nearly 200 more than the year before.

“I also noticed more and more clients are beginning to work, but the work is precarious and it’s not really stable income,” said Rehana Sumar, executive director of Mosaic Interfaith.

Changing landscape of Ontario’s job market

The hunger report finds that there is an emerging trend that more working people are turning to food banks to make ends meet.

While food banks in the region have not experienced a significant increase in households whose primary source of income was employment, Bilotta said some individual food banks did see a similar trend that more working people were turning to them for help.

Georgina Community Food Pantry has had a 22 per cent increase in clients who are employed full-time over the past three years, according to executive director Catherine Cook.

The food bank in Richmond Hill also saw a growing demand from working people in 2019, Reynolds said, cautioning the statistics were “imperfect” because employment information was not consistently recorded.

“Some of them have several part-time jobs. But it’s just not enough,” Reynolds said, noting the “low income” and “high cost of living” in Richmond Hill drove up the need for food banks.

She also noticed that some "highly educated" people had to work in minimum-wage jobs.

The hunger report backs up her observation, noting close to half of all minimum wage workers in Ontario are 25 or older, and one third of them held a post-secondary degree.

This explained why the demand for food bank use went up while unemployment rates in Ontario are at their lowest point in 10 years, according to the report.

It is noteworthy that the number of temporary positions -- such as casual, seasonal and contract roles -- has increased by 31 per cent since 1998.

These “troubling” numbers indicate, the report says, that minimum wage positions -- once held primarily by high school students -- are now filled by “skilled, working-aged adults.”

Widening ‘shortfall’ in welfare

The majority of people who accessed the food banks locally, or provincially, are still those who depend on welfare like Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

Take Humanity First Canada in Vaughan as an example: it served more than 5,000 families in 2019, and only 15 per cent of them were employed, according to Chair Aslam Daud.

The report also finds a considerably wide gap between how much the welfare recipients get and how much they need to meet the modest, basic standard of living.

Ontario Works, for example, provides recipients with $733 per month, which is less than half of what the average single-person household would require -- $1,641 per month -- to afford their basic necessities such as food, housing and medication.

“This shortfall is growing, as the income provided by Ontario Works and ODSP are not being maintained alongside inflation,” the report adds.

“That’s a major, major issue,” Sumar said. “And when they’re earning a little bit of money, it’d be not enough to live off of, but enough to lose some of their benefits. It’s like catch-22.”

She suggested the government should introduce “case management” that connects people to employment support accordingly.