CBC- Toronto’s food bank use keeps hitting new records, faster than ever before: report
“It took 38 years to get to one million visits, two years to get to two million, a year to get to three,” he said. “And now we’re another year and here we are at 4.1 million visits.”
That figure comes straight from this year’s Who’s Hungry report, and represents an increase of 636,962 more visits than 2024. It’s also a 340 per cent increase since 2019.
What amazes me is why everyone doesn’t go to the “free” grocery store. Once people have paid for their lottery tickets, nail manicures, cell phones, liquor, drugs, useless vitamins and supplements, cosmetics, 8 streaming services, ETC., it’s not a surprise that groceries are a problem for some.
Where’s the “free” liquor bank?
Don’t forget driving their new Suburban over to buy what the foodbank doesn’t have, carts full of junk food.
Look at your grocery store. Multiple aisles full of water, plain or flavoured (basically a free good here) contaminated in plastic bottles and no nutrient value chips and snacks. That’s what people buy.
Bring in unskilled immigrants to work for shit wages in a high cost country and what do you expect?
The high wage immigrants also hit the food banks.
I think the increases signify an ethical collapse as much as strained economic circumstances.
Back in the 1980s I worked in a small building across from a food bank in Brampton that was notorious for its poor signage. One day a Cadillac pulled up to our door and a woman in a fur coat got out and walked in. “Do you know where the food bank is?”, she asked. I’m not sure about the fur coat but the Caddy was real.
I think the barriers have broken down where people used to feel embarrassed going to a food bank. If you can reorganize your day starting at the food bank you can then determine how much money you have for beer, wine and the hair dresser.
When someone offers “free food”, everyone goes, rich and poor. Not wasting money to buy food when rubes give it away for free.
As Steve wrote, the barriers are gone.
Look at the management of the food bank. Unbelievable! And the comp must be exceptional.
Time to cull the overhead. How hard can it be to collect food at a warehouse, pack it and hand it out?
AI tells me that “The estimated average salary for the CEO at Daily Bread Food Bank is $182,021 per year, though some professionals in the role have reported earning up to approximately $673,550. This is based on data from Glassdoor and includes a range of reported salaries.”
Would they starve to death if the food bank disappeared?