‘Unprecedented’: Monthly Food Bank Use in Canada Reaches Record 2 Million Visits

Canada saw record food bank use in 2024, with a high of over 2 million food bank visits in March, says a Food Banks Canada report.
“Food bank visits in March 2024 are at an unprecedented level, surpassing even last year’s record-breaking number,” the report said. “This record level of usage is consistent with record high rates of food insecurity and reflects findings from other recent studies showing greater numbers of people experiencing economic hardship.”
The report also found close to 30 percent of food banks have reported running out of food as they struggle to deal with food and housing inflation.
Canada has been experiencing a cost-of-living crisis in recent years due to the combined factors of inflation, higher food and housing costs, higher interest rates, and lower overall productivity. Canada’s inflation rate rose from 2.2 percent in March 2021 to a peak of 8.1 percent in June 2022, causing the Bank of Canada to subsequently raise interest rates from 0.25 percent in March 2022 to a peak of 5 percent in July 2023.
The higher interest rates managed to bring inflation down closer to the Bank of Canada’s target, with September 2024’s inflation numbers sitting at just 1.6 percent, allowing the Bank to further decrease interest rates to 3.75 percent in October. Prices for food and housing have remained elevated despite the change.
Meanwhile, many banks saw a decrease in food donations from individual donors and corporations in recent years, forcing them to dip into their cash reserves and purchase food directly. Dan Huang-Taylor, executive director at Food Banks B.C., said 107 different food banks across the province had reported this trend.