Demand keeps going up at the Sudbury Food Bank

Every year demand seems to go up at the Sudbury Food Bank, says its executive director Dan Xilon.

"The numbers seem to still be increasing to a degree, whether you're a senior, whether you're a new Canadian, whether you're a young family, whether you're working, whether you're a student, it just doesn't matter," he said.

"There just seems to be more people looking for food."

And demand isn't just up in Sudbury.

A new report from Feed Ontario — a network of more than 1,200 food banks and hunger relief programs in the province — found that more than one million people in Ontario accessed a food bank from 2023 to 2024, which was a 25 per cent increase over the previous year.

"While food banks are doing their best to keep doors open and shelves full, the unprecedented need for food bank support has outpaced their capacity and the resources available to deliver these services," the report said.

The Sudbury Food Bank supplies food to 38 organizations and programs in Greater Sudbury, which serve around 10,000 people each month.

And it does it entirely thanks to donations from the community.

Xilon said the Edgar Burton Food Drive each December is the envy of many other food banks, and keeps the organization's shelves stocked for a good part of the year. That drive is named for a Sudbury man who started a food donation campaign years ago, and with the support of his friends, family and union members, it continues.

"We usually get about 100 tonnes [of food]," Xilon said.

Despite that campaign, Xilon said he has to get more creative today with what food he chooses to purchase when people donate money to the food bank.

"Everything costs more," he said.

Demand high in small town too

In the northern Ontario town of Iroquois Falls, 70 kilometres northeast of Timmins, it's young people who rely most on the local food bank.

"Most of them are between 20 and 35," said David Strauss, who runs the Iroquois Falls Food Bank with his wife Ann.

"In our area, a lot of seniors have good pensions from the mill," he said.

Strauss said a thrift store affiliated with the food bank is its main funding source. Revenues from selling second-hand clothing and household items go to purchase food for the food bank's 150 clients.

"There's a need everywhere," he said.