Food insecurity

More families turn to food banks in 2024

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , ,

Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter

Following the release of the annual Bilan Faim report by the Banques Alimentaires du Québec on October 28, the Moisson Sud-Ouest food bank says it continues to see a considerable increase in demand for food aid.

In the last three years, the number of requests for food aid in the Haut-Saint-Laurent, Beauharnois-Salaberry, Vaudreuil-Soulanges, and Roussillon regions has grown by 30,206.

The statistics suggest the number of individuals and families in need is similarly growing across the country. Food Banks Canada says that a six-per cent increase in visits to food banks was registered nationally compared with last year – representing a 90-per cent increase since 2019. Organizations partnering with the network of food banks across Quebec are now responding to 2.9 million food aid requests per month – an increase of 13 per cent over last year’s numbers.

Over 35 per cent of those benefiting from food aid through one of the 80 food pantries and organizations served by Moisson Sud-Ouest are children. In addition to the food aid being distributed to homes with children, over 35,000 snacks are distributed each month. The organization reports that over 1,000 food baskets per month are distributed to employed individuals, and over 10 per cent of those relying on food baskets own their home.

In a press release, Moisson Sud-Ouest points out that the $30 million granted by the government in the last budget allowed the network of food banks to purchase more food to meet the demand. It notes that while the government’s recently released action plan to fight poverty and social exclusion is a step in the right direction, even stronger public policy is needed to fight poverty and hunger before the most vulnerable in society will see any concrete impacts.

“For the first time, the issue of food security has been recognized in the government’s action plan to combat poverty. However, we need to do more to reduce the enormous pressure exerted by the growing need for food aid,” says Yan Ouellette, the director of communications and philanthropy at Moisson Sud-Ouest. He suggests the government must act now to help those facing food insecurity by attacking the root causes of poverty. “We have recognized the state of emergency; now we must act to help the most vulnerable and reverse the trend we are facing,” he notes.

According to the Bilan Faim, 72 per cent of the organizations served by Quebec food banks faced shortages, and 54 per cent were forced to purchase food to meet the demand.

“Our organization is doing all it can to meet the demand, notably by setting up initiatives in collaboration with several partners in the region to increase the volume of foodstuffs we distribute, or by holding recurring fund-raising campaigns, but that’s not enough,” says Moisson Sud-Ouest director Stéphane Spisak. “We will continue to do all we can to support those in need, but alone, we cannot solve the problem at the source.”

The annual Guignolée des medias du Suroît fundraiser for Moisson Sud-Ouest will run from November 22 to December 31.

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Community kitchens are collaborating to fight food insecurity

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Montreal food organizations are uniting to help those in need. Graphic Myriam Ouazzani

Zachary Cheung,
Local Journalism Initiative

High grocery prices lead food security organizations to share ingredients

Several food security organizations in Montreal have banded together to help ease the burden of food inflation on residents. But as grocery prices rise, community kitchens have had to depend on each other to address the scarcity created by expensive ingredients.

Elizabeth Fraser, an organizer for Community Cooks Collective (CCC), believes that addressing food insecurity is a collective endeavor. According to Fraser, partnerships between organizations often consist of sharing ingredients and pooling money in order to supply more food than a single community kitchen could produce individually.

“I think that community groups are part of a systemic change,” she said. “People are saying that they’re not going to let this happen. They’re going to try to meet a need in the community that’s not being met by businesses.”

The organization prepares and delivers meals to other community kitchens across Montreal. Community members cook using free ingredients supplied by CCC which are then gathered and donated in bulk.

However, according to Patrick Cortbaoui, the managing director of the Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food Security, community kitchens are only a temporary solution to a larger issue of rising food insecurity.

“I believe that [community kitchens] are doing extraordinary work,” Cortbaoui said. “But the burden is not on their shoulders. It’s on the government, on the policies, on local awareness.”
 
According to Cortbaoui, food is becoming inaccessible because the supply of Canadian groceries is held in the hands of a small number of companies. Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Walmart and Costco hold roughly 80 per cent of grocery market sales. Cortbaoui said that the monopolization of the grocery industry has led to a surplus of food that is becoming increasingly difficult for many Canadians to access. 

As a result, Cortbaoui said Canadians have been leaning on community organizations to fulfill the needs that grocery stores are unable to meet. Community kitchens have followed in a similar fashion, relying on each other to fill the gaps caused by the lack of access to affordable produce. 

The Open Door, an emergency shelter in Milton-Parc, is one of the organizations that CCC is partnered with. Dan Marré, the shelter’s weekend team lead, said that The Open Door is not always able to supply the community with certain nutritious foods like dairy and meat. 

Marré said that The Open Door’s partnerships with smaller community kitchens is sometimes the deciding factor in whether they can offer a well-balanced menu. 

“Let’s say we have a lot of vegetables – that often results in less protein in our menu,” Marré said. “Another organization might have meat on their menu, so we can combine these two and provide something that’s more fulfilling for the rest of the community.”

According to Tatianta Townsley, another organizer at CCC, donating meals helps address the “imbalance of resources” between different community kitchens across the city. Smaller organizations like CCC may not have the capacity to serve clients directly, but the kitchen’s volunteers donate their excess time and energy to make food that other organizations can then distribute. 

Regardless of the quantity of food an organization is able to provide, Townsley said that building connections between kitchens is the first step to creating a network that can support people struggling to eat. 

“In an individualistic society, we aren’t taught to value helping our neighbours,” Townsley said. “I think there’s just a lot we can do for each other, and it’s important to remember that.”

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La Bouffe Additionnelle needs support for cooler wheels

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Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter

The La Bouffe Additionelle food pantry in Huntingdon recently received just under $48,500 from the provincial government to purchase new freezers and automotive equipment. Essentially, the organization is looking to invest in a refrigerated truck, and soon.

The funding is part of the Quebec Food Banks Infrastructure program to fight food insecurity by strengthening the province’s aid network, reducing food waste, and improving storage capacity.

The Moisson Sud-Ouest food bank, which serves over 80 organizations in the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent, MRC de Beauharnois-Salaberry, and MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, also received $500,000 in funding through this initiative for the expansion of its new warehouse in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. La Bouffe Additionnelle, which is one of the organizations served by Moisson Sud-Ouest, learned about the call for projects through the regional food bank.

A refrigerated truck would allow La Bouffe Additionnelle to travel greater distances to collect donated food products from local grocery stores. With the current vehicle, the organization is restricted to the Huntingdon area, and drivers are not able to go even as far as Ormstown to collect goods because the truck is unable to keep products cold. The situation becomes even more pressing come May when budgetary restrictions will force Moisson Sud-Ouest to stop deliveries to the area.

Sylvie Racette, the director of La Bouffe Additionnelle, says a new truck is essential, but the organization is still short more than half of the funds necessary to purchase the vehicle. She has applied to the MRC du Haut-Saint-Laurent’s second call for vitalisation projects, but she is looking for private donations as well to help cover the costs.

Racette says that along with being able to collect more goods, the organization is hoping to use the truck to help those facing food insecurity in more remote areas of the Haut-Saint-Laurent who may not be able to travel to Huntingdon. They also hope to be able to loan the truck out to other community organizations working to fight food insecurity in the region.

Need continues to grow

Racette says the need in the area for food support is significant. “It is growing. I have seen an increase since I started last June,” she notes, while acknowledging the clientele is changing. She says the organization has gone from helping seven or eight clients per day to as many as 20. “The paradigm has changed,” she says, noting they are in the process of adjusting their rules around who is eligible for help. With inflation, some who own their own home and have jobs are still struggling to make ends meet, she explains.

This past December the organization distributed 450 food baskets. Racette says that while the demand has increased, so too has the number of volunteers. At least 20 people volunteered to help with the Christmas basket distribution, and she has six volunteers who regularly come to help. She notes that the community is also becoming more involved. For example, the Darragh Trucking Company loaned the organization a truck to keep food from spoiling when supplies surpassed their freezer capacity last December. Maison Russet also helped to store frozen goods. “The yesses came quickly,” she says.

Racette notes that after undergoing a period of transition, the food pantry is on solid footing with a supportive board of directors and new projects on the horizon.

“We dream about being able to provide Easter food baskets,” she says, suggesting they could also provide baskets at the start of the school year to help young families, or during other more difficult times of the year. “We simply don’t realize the extent of the need within the community,” she admits.

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Skyrocketing food prices impact Montrealers

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Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Ellie Wand & Hannah Scott-Talib
Local Journalism Initiative

When Liam Neary began his studies at Concordia, he expected a monthly grocery bill of around $250.

Now, having almost completed his second year, his food budget has gone up by approximately one hundred dollars—simply from buying enough to cook around three meals per week. “It’s only been going up since,” Neary said.

Like Neary, nursing student Gabrielle Axelle Elie’s Provigo trip now costs her close to $100, almost double to what it cost a few years ago.

According to a 2022 Maclean’s education report, 40 per cent of post-secondary students in Canada are food insecure, and heading into the upcoming year, inflation will continue to drive food prices higher and higher for students like him.

Canada’s 2024 Food Price Report states that overall food prices are likely to increase by 2.5 to 4.5 per cent over the coming year—a slight decrease from the five to seven per cent increase the year prior. The report states that broader factors such as labour disputes, climate change and the geopolitical impact of the Russia-Ukraine war contributed to food inflation throughout 2023.

COVID-19 lockdowns have resulted in higher energy prices, which is straining the food distribution system, and is driving the price of food up, according to Statistics Canada. 


Rebekah Walker is a second-year Concordia student who lives off campus. She says that she currently spends on average $250 per month on groceries. Like Neary, this is more than she had initially budgeted going into university. “I’m making it work and it’s okay,” said Walker. “[But] I feel like if it goes up more, it’ll be a lot harder to manage.” 

When it comes to cutting costs, Dalhousie University’s recent New Year’s Food Resolution Survey showed that 43 per cent of Canadians plan to focus on food promotions and sales to spend less on groceries. In addition to this, the survey revealed that many are looking at ways to reduce food waste to be more cost-efficient in the new year, making use of methods such as canning and freezing, purchasing more non-perishable food items, preserving and eating more leftovers as well as making their meal portions smaller. 

Meanwhile, students at Concordia are finding their own ways of keeping costs down when it comes to grocery shopping.

On his end, Neary religiously checks grocery flyers before going food shopping. His meals are planned and dependent on sales. “I go out of my way to go to the cheapest grocery stores,” he said.

For Walker, cost efficiency comes in the form of sharing groceries within her household. Between her and her three other roommates, products such as milk, butter, and bread are bought collectively, with everyone taking turns to pay for them. However, Walker said that certain perishable items like fruits and vegetables don’t often end up on her grocery list. “They’re pricier and they go bad, so it’s kind of a waste of money,” she said. 

Food Bank Canada’s 2023 Hunger Count also revealed that food bank usage is at an all-time high nationwide. The organization noted that around two million people visited Canadian food banks in 2023, which was reported to be a 32 per cent increase since March 2022.

“[With] what I see in grocery stores, it’s not a huge shock that people need to use food banks,” said Neary. “[But] It’s upsetting that that number has increased so drastically.”

There are several student-run initiatives aimed at fighting food insecurity at Concordia. One of these is the People’s Potato, a student-founded vegan soup kitchen, which is funded by a student fee levy paid through the Concordia Student Union. It provides free meals to students from Monday through Thursday at the Sir George Williams campus. 

For those at the Loyola campus, the Hive free breakfast and lunch program, which is also a student-funded fee levy group, provides free vegan and vegetarian breakfast and lunch to students during the weekdays. 

A few times a month, Walker said she makes use of Concordia-based initiatives such as The People’s Potato and Hive Free Lunch to get a meal, as both operations offer free meals to the community. “I think it’s really convenient, [and] it’s healthy, good food,” she said.

Boris Restrepo, a collective member of The People’s Potato, said that food insecurity is a reality for many students, but is a symptom of larger, systemic problems. “Food insecurity is a reality or a large portion of society, and this includes student communities,” he said. 

For Restrepo, addressing food insecurity means addressing the broader issues at play. “There’s a long list of things that our governments can be doing,” he said. “Universal basic income, access to mental health services, public funding for education or affordable access to education, consolidation of student loans.” 

Restrepo also wants to see food banks have access to more autonomous funding, making them less reliant on large charities.  

Montreal’s food banks are experiencing a severe lack of help and donations. As demand for food grows drastically, places like Moisson Montreal—the largest food bank in Canada—are reportedly not distributing nearly enough food in comparison to the number of clients they are receiving. Additionally, as the provider of food donations to over 300 organizations across the city, the situation is getting desperate, as expressed by Maggie Borowiec, Moisson Montreal’s director of philanthropy.

At Casa C.A.F.I., a support centre based in Verdun that offers food donations to immigrant families, funding has become a problem as well, according to Director Ana Gloria Blanch. She said that the centre received government funding during its first two years of business, but since then, that funding has been pulled. Now, for its food services, Casa C.A.F.I. relies on volunteer work and public donations to remain in operation. 

“The organization is stuck with the [notion] that everybody wants to continue, but we don’t have any money,” said Blanch. “Right now, we are asking others, ‘what do you want to do? How are we going to continue?’ It’s not fair.”

In contrast, Canada’s largest food companies also continue to face ongoing profiteering allegations heading into the new year. According to a 2023 Bloomberg News poll, 15 per cent of respondents deemed the food inflation crisis is in large part a result of profiteering on the side of grocery giants. 

Restrepo doesn’t think the food situation will happen anytime soon. “The system is ruthless,” he said. “Under capitalism, it seems like efforts are always based on profitable and questionable means.”

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The Atwater Community Pantry: “Free food, mutual aid project for all”

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The Atwater Community Pantry welcomes donations from everyone, and encourages the community to take from the box when needed. Photo Cate Gransaull

Shyam Ragavan
Local Journalism Initiative

Located in the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, the Atwater Community Pantry is a bright green wooden cabinet often stuffed with bread, juice boxes and hygiene products. The pantry was founded by the Green Earth Club, a student association at Dawson College which focuses on helping the community and fighting climate change. 

Over five million people used food banks and similar discounted or free food initiatives across Canada per month in 2022 according to Second Harvest, a national food rescue organization. This year, the number is expected to rise to over eight million, a 60 per cent climb. 

As mutual aid projects emerged during the pandemic, it sparked inspiration for a group of Dawson College students. One of these students was John Nathaniel Gertler, a former member of the Green Earth Club turned co-founder of the Atwater Community Pantry.

“Some people give from their own pantry at home, some people go to the grocery store and buy things. The main way that the community [pantry] gets filled is volunteers go to bakeries and restaurants to pick up food,” Gertler says.

The pantry welcomes donations from everyone, as long as the food is non-perishable.

“It transforms people’s mindset in the sense that we’re here to help each other. We aren’t saying this is mine or this is yours. We are helping everyone,” says Ana Sofia Hernandez, another member of the club.

The pantry is about mutual aid, rather than charity. “There’s a lot of people who volunteer and take food from the pantry. That’s the whole idea of mutual aid. It’s not like the rich helping the poor, [but rather] about people supporting one another,” Gertler says.

Other food aid services in Quebec such as the Welcome Hall Mission’s Marché Bon Accueil and The Depot Community Food Centre (formerly the NDG depot) require either membership cards or registration. The Atwater Community Pantry, however, is free for anyone to use.

“There are a lot of people housed in precarious situations who take from the pantry. A lot of [unhoused] people, members of the Atwater community and even I take from the pantry,” Gertler says.

The club organizes community meals to meet the people involved in the project. Due to the pantry’s anonymity, it can sometimes be difficult to know who is interacting with the pantry. “We’re still learning and trying to get better at bringing together the community,” Gertler says. 

Gertler and other members of the club went to nearby restaurants and asked if they would like to donate leftover food instead of throwing it out. Shaughnessy Café and Forno West bakery were among those who agreed to contribute to the pantry.

Resilience Montréal, a non-profit day-shelter, also orders food for the pantry. The partnership came about as many students had volunteered there.

Non-perishable food donations include: bagels, granola bars, water and canned food; as well as staples like rice, flour and sugar which are accepted by the pantry. Apart from food, menstrual products are also welcomed by the pantry.

Tianqi Wang, a student at McGill University, volunteers at the Atwater Community Pantry. It was his first time volunteering for the pantry and he had brought a huge bag packed with bread from Forno West bakery.

“I saw the poster near the Atwater metro. I followed their Instagram and then I signed up with the link in their profile,” he says. 

Wang hopes that people who have access to surplus food and resources would donate to the less privileged groups in order to reduce inequality. 

The pantry’s heavy reliance on volunteers, or lack thereof, has caused problems during the summer when most students are not around to fulfil a needed quota for the pantry. This is just one of many challenges faced by the club. For example, the initiative is based on the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, a women’s religious order founded in 1658. This community was directly associated with the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal, and helped to found Ville-Marie, now Montreal. 

Members of the convent of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame established a boarding school for Indigenous girls which operated with the goal of Indigenous religious conversion to Christianity and cultural adaptation to French norms. The system followed a structure similar to residential schools found in late nineteenth and twentieth century Canada.

Indigenous people make up a large part of the unhoused community in Atwater. 

“We see a lot of concrete effects of settler colonialism. We see people struggling with intergenerational trauma, whether it be drug abuse and mental health issues,” Gertler says. He continues by lending his perspective on the congregation’s seedy past:

“As far as we know, the Congrégation de Notre-Dame wasn’t directly involved in setting up or servicing residential schools, but it was a part of a network of catholic institutions [involved in] genocidal activity. We have a discomfort being involved with an institution like that, but at the end of the day, [The congregation has] been really good hosts to us, and haven’t questioned some of our more political activity, which is hard to find, even in a more progressive institution like Dawson.”

While the unsettling history of the congregation lingers on with the pantry, the students have their eyes set on more ambitious projects.

“We [also] organize clothing drives. In the winter, we have a bin where anyone can put their old garments, which we then take to Resilience Montréal,” Hernandez says. “This semester, we plan to organize fundraisers for Guatemala, Hawaii and Morocco. [The countries] are suffering from humanitarian crises and environmental effects of climate change.”

Their Instagram is regularly updated with news about their latest initiatives, ways to get involved and how to sign up as a volunteer.

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