Women make up more than two-thirds of food bank clients, Harvest Manitoba's 2024 report says
Women often act as caregivers, end up taking low-paying jobs, says Harvest Manitoba advocacy manager
More than two-thirds of the food bank clients who responded to Harvest Manitoba's latest survey are women, a marked change from past surveys.
The Harvest Voices 2024 report, released this week, tells the stories of some of the clients of Harvest Manitoba — the province's biggest food bank — and looks at key factors that drive people to rely on food banks.
It's based on a survey done via phone, email and in person at food banks from May to September 2024, with 649 responses from clients offering a snapshot of food bank use during those months.
Meaghan Erbus, the advocacy and impact manager at Harvest Manitoba, noted a shift from last year's report.
"The number through the demographics that we would see would be single males. Now what we're seeing is the majority of folks accessing our food banks are women, around the age of 40," she said.
The increase is due to a number of factors, Erbus said.
"Women are disproportionately affected by poverty because they are often caregivers, whether that's a caregiver to children or to an older adult in their family," she said.
This makes it harder for women to find viable employment, and they end up taking low-paying jobs, she said.
Among the people who took part in the survey, 45 per cent were employed either part-time or full time, 62 per cent had children and 50 per cent lived with disabilities.
'A lifesaver'
Survey participant Kehinde Jasper is among the 50,000 people Manitoba Harvest says use food banks every month.
Jasper came to Winnipeg from Nigeria in April 2023 as an international student. Her four kids now live with her here, while her husband is still in Nigeria and plans to join them soon.
In addition to being a full-time student, she works 20 hours a week, but doesn't earn enough to make ends meet, she said.
At a grocery store, "you buy something very small and then you're paying, like, $100 beyond," she said.
But "you go to Harvest Manitoba, they give you something like double of what you buy."
Jasper visits the food bank once a month and gets a supply of items to cook nutritious meals for her family, she said.
"The last time they gave me some kale, broccoli, green pepper — canned food too. For my daughter, who is six, they gave her milk. They gave carbohydrates, protein — you know, everything for a balanced diet."
She's grateful for the support they have received, and sometimes volunteers for Harvest Manitoba. She hopes to be an entrepreneur one day and help more people like her.
"It's a lifesaver. It helps you in a lot of things, coming from wherever — most of us are immigrants here."
Jasper says the help from the food bank came when she needed it the most, and she and her daughters look forward to the visits and restocking their supplies each month.
"Honestly, it's a big deal for me. It's a wonderful experience. It's something that's thrilled me and made me very emotional."
66% make $20K or less per year: report
Katherine Romane, another person featured in the report, lives with two friends.
With Romane's income supporting the entire household until recently, she struggled for two years to keep up with inflation and balancing bills.
"They're diabetic — you know, I need to make sure food is in the house. So I ended up getting in touch with Harvest, who helped us out with monthly food bank appointments for the two years."
But since one of the people she lives with was recently approved for Canada Pension Plan disability benefits, they no longer have to rely on the services of the food bank for now, said Romane.
But while they did, the supplies they got sometimes didn't go far enough in her household, since they're based on a client's physical address, rather than the number of families at the address, she said.
"Unfortunately … a lot of people are in the position where they're being forced to cohabitate because of the financial crisis everybody's in," Romane said.
Housing costs, inflation and low hourly wages are among the factors driving up reliance on food banks, said Harvest's Erbus.
According to its report, 66 per cent of respondents said that they make $20,000 or less per year, which is below what is considered the poverty line for a single person in Manitoba.
Most clients (58 per cent) said they use food banks due to a general lack of income to make ends meet, while other other reasons included loss of a job (15 per cent) or being a newcomer (14 per cent).
The report also outlines 10 recommendations to help address the pressures food bank clients face, including considering a universal basic income, or "livable basic needs benefit," to "ensure no household is left living below the poverty line in Manitoba."
It also recommends increasing spending on social assistance, raising the minimum wage (currently $15.80 per hour) to keep up with inflation, creating a provincewide food security strategy, improving access to skills training and educational opportunities, and ensuring child care is accessible and affordable.
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