Inflation increases pressure on food banks; Harvest expects record demand during holiday season

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This article was published 11/10/2022 (1084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rising grocery prices caused by inflation is resulting in skyrocketing demand on Manitoba food banks.

Harvest Manitoba CEO Vince Barletta said the facility sent out 15,000 hampers to hungry families and seniors in the past month leading up to Thanksgiving — up from about 11,000 in the same period last year.

That works out to more than 238,000 kilograms of non-perishable and fresh food doled out to people in need in just the past four weeks.

“Inflation, economic uncertainty (and) supply-chain problems are causing real hardship all over Canada and plunging more and more Canadians into food insecurity — that was the story at Harvest this Thanksgiving,” Barletta said.

“We’re seeing the same story across the country. I talk to colleagues in Vancouver and Toronto and the Maritimes, and the story is more or less the same.”

Barletta said he anticipates record-high demand through the holiday season.

“These next number of months are going to be difficult for a lot of families because of high prices and economic uncertainty, here in Winnipeg and across the province and, quite frankly, around Canada.”

Statistics Canada said last month that the annual inflation rate had slowed to seven per cent in August, which was largely driven by the falling price of gas. Grocery prices, meanwhile, have risen 10.8 per cent in the last year, which is the fastest pace since 1981.

“What it means in reality (is) that people have to make really tough choices… between food and medicine or food and other bills or food and getting new school clothes for the kids,” Barletta said.

“The worst thing about poverty is the choices it forces people to make.”

Barletta said Harvest’s goal is to make those choices easier by getting as much food into people’s fridges and on their tables as it can — and he implored anyone who can to donate food, money or time to the non-profit to do so.

He noted rising prices have impacted Harvest’s operations; fuel for its truck fleet and the food it buys to supplement donations cost more, as well as incidental costs, such as repairs.

“The same inflationary pressures that are hitting Manitoba families have been hitting us, as well,” said Barletta.

Meantime, the food bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Anishiniew Okimawin and Food Banks Canada to develop plans for operations in the four First Nations on Island Lake in Manitoba’s North.

The region is about 425 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg by plane, near the Ontario border.

The grand chief of Anishiniew Okimawin, also known as the Island Lake Tribal Council, said many people in the four remote communities struggle to feed their families healthy foods due to high prices, shipping costs and the disruption of tradition.

“I grew up in Red Sucker Lake and I know the struggles that many of our children and families face, having proper, nutritious food available to them,” said Grand Chief Scott Harper.

The hope is to develop food banks in St. Theresa Point, Wasagamack, Garden Hill and Red Sucker Lake First Nations within the next six months, Barletta said of the deal.

The food bank will work with leadership in the communities to determine logistics and scheduling of food shipments, he said, and will rely on the federal food security program Nutrition North’s transportation subsidy.

The communities will lead the operations on the ground, he said.

Barletta, along with other officials, visited St. Theresa Point in August with a shipment of food.

“The one thing we recognized immediately is that Harvest needs to be where the need is the greatest, and the need is the greatest in our remote First Nation communities,” he said.

Harvest plans to get shipments of food to at least two communities this fall, he said.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera