High food costs, higher demand, burn candle at both ends for Sudbury Food Bank

A new report on food bank usage across Canada reflects the experience in Greater Sudbury, Ont., according to the head of the Sudbury Food Bank.

The annual Hunger Count report from Food Banks Canada found there were almost 1.5 million visits to Canadian food banks in March. That was 15 per cent more than the number of visits in the same month last year and 35 per cent higher than visits in March 2019.

"We've actually been hit by two sides of a burning candle here," said Dan Xilon, the executive director of the Sudbury Food Bank.

"We've got an increase in people that are needing the services and we've got to increase the cost to supply those services. Strictly in food alone, I think they're the highest they've been in 40 years in Canada as far as inflation goes."

In September, Xilon said the Sudbury Food Bank and its 44 partners, which include small community food banks and school breakfast programs, served 11,500 people.

He said the number of clients has been higher at certain points – especially at times when there were large strikes in Sudbury – but those periods of high need always lasted a short time.

"This is the first time that it's been higher and it never goes down. There's never less people using the food bank," Xilon said.

While Sudbury Food Bank can exercise greater buying power for food, by purchasing items in bulk and working out deals with grocery stores, Xilon said inflation means they are paying more for less.

"Well, when they say that food prices have gone up 25 per cent maybe overall, but in certain sectors it's gone up like over 100 per cent," he said.

Xilon said items like oils and some meats have seen steeper price increases than some other food items.

We've actually been hit by two sides of a burning candle here.- Dan Xilon, executive director, Sudbury Food Bank

But, while demand for food banks has increased, along with costs, Xilon said their volunteers and donors have kept them going.

"Sudbury has still been able to keep all food banks and meal programs running," he said. "We have incredible volunteers and all these organizations doing amazing work out there."

Xilon said the long-term outlook, though, is less certain. He added more needs to be done to help people rely less on food banks in the first place.

"What really needs to happen is we need to come up with some sort of plan for affordable housing, some sort of a guarantee for people to have a way that they can buy their food without having to come through a food bank," he said.

Gisela Nepssy, a long-time volunteer with the small Valley East Good Neighbours Food Bank in the Greater Sudbury community of Hanmer, said she has seen more people use their services in recent months.

She said some of the clients include single mothers, people with disabilities and people suffering from addictions. 

But Nepssy said she thinks some clients have become too reliant on the large amounts of food they get from the food bank.

"We become a crutch and people become very dependent on coming to us rather than thinking, 'OK, I can do better than that.'"

Nepssy noted one past client put herself through school and became a registered nurse, and was eventually able to give back to the food bank.