Toronto food banks are at 'breaking point,' says Daily Bread CEO, calling on province to boost social supports

More people visited Daily Bread Food Bank locations in March than at any time in the charity's 40-year history, its CEO said Tuesday while calling on the province to do more to help people fight the high price of groceries. 

Prior to the pandemic, the network of 128 food banks across the Greater Toronto Area saw about 65,000 clients a month. In March, that number more than quadrupled to 270,000, Neil Hetherington said at a news conference Tuesday. The charity is also now spending $1.8 million a month on food. Before the onset of COVID-19, it spent $1.5 million a year. 

"Let me be very clear: we are in a crisis. The Daily Bread Food Bank and food banks all across the city are at a breaking point," Hetherington said. 

Hetherington added the problem is not one that charities can fix. Instead, he called on the provincial government to provide people on social assistance with the same emergency supports they were provided during the pandemic. 

The food bank wants to see a return of the provincially provided top-up to social assistance recipients, which was $100 for singles and $200 families. The top-up was available between March and July 31, 2020, but it was provided at the discretion of caseworkers. The food bank would like to see it return as an automatic benefit to cover the high cost of food people are currently grappling with. 

In response to Hetherington's comments, a spokesperson for Ontario's ministry of children, community and social services said the Ontario Disability Support Program will be tied to inflation beginning in July 2023, a move originally announced in November 2022. 

The statement to CBC News also pointed to a 400 per cent increase in the ODSP earning exemption, which allows recipients to earn $1,000 per month while receiving the benefit, up from $200. The exemption increase took effect in February. 

How it got to this point

Daily Bread is also in a precarious financial position. The charity put aside $33 million to get through the pandemic and that money will run out in 18 to 24 months, Hetherington said.

When that reserve dries up, he said they'll have to raise more money or food donations. Most crucially, he said, the number of clients will need to go down, which is why they're calling on the province to step in.

"We got here because we chose to legislate individuals to live in poverty through income supports that are abysmal," Hetherington said.

Much of the food bank's clientele are people whose income comes from social assistance programs like Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, he said.

Ontario Works provides recipients with $733 a month and ODSP provides up to $1,228. Hetherington said those are both too low, with the ODSP payment being $900 below the poverty line in Toronto.

Sue-Ellen Patcheson is a volunteer and client of the Daily Bread Food Bank who relies on government assistance. Before the pandemic, she said she and the four people she lives with had $300 a month leftover for food. These days, she said that budget is a bit lower and doesn't buy half as much. 

"Most days we eat maybe one meal, occasionally two meals a day. [Without the food bank] that would be reduced even further and I can't imagine," she said.

Food bank visits have also increased among people whose primary source of income is employment, Hetherington said. The percentage of those clients has doubled in the last year, from 16 per cent to 33 per cent. 

"It used to be that if you went to school, got an education, got a job, you would be just fine. That isn't the case anymore," he said. 

Valerie Tarasuk is a professor in the University of Toronto's department of nutritional sciences and the lead investigator of PROOF, a research program looking into policy interventions that can reduce food insecurity in Canada.  

She said food inflation is worsening the severity of food insecurity people are experiencing, driving more people to food banks. 

PROOF's 2021 food insecurity report, the most recent, found 5.8 million Canadians are food insecure across the 10 provinces, Tarasuk said. About one in four of those people end up at food banks, she said. 

"What I think is happening now with food price inflation is we've got more people being pushed to that extreme point and they're surfacing in numbers like Daily Bread's," she said.