Local food banks struggling to adjust due to record demand

Food banks in Edmonton are fighting to keep shelves stocked.

Edmonton's Food Bank and the University of Alberta Campus Food Bank are both seeing record demand and finding ways to stretch donations far enough to feed their clients.

Erin O'Neil is the executive director of the Campus Food Bank, and she said the program needs tens of thousands of dollars just to make it through the spring. So, they will be holding a fundraising drive to help bridge the gap.

"We’re hoping to raise $20,000 for the purchase of fresh produce and meat," she said. "That’s because we’re running out of money to afford those specific items for the rest of the year before we can start to depend on community gardens for produce."

O'Neil said the bank was previously able to supply students using only around $20,000 a year to supplement food donations. That number was closer to $100,000 over the past 12 months.

"Cost of living is going up, tuition is going up, [there are] so many increased costs for students," said Abner Monteiro, president of the University of Alberta Student's Union. "You can kind of understand and start to see why there’s an increased usage."

From last January to now, the university food bank has increased from 300 households using the service every month to around 900. Of those clients, 70 per cent are international students.

"It's your classmates who are not being able to access healthy food and are being hungry going through class," said Pauline Chan, a student volunteer. "Students shouldn't have to choose between books and food."

'ECONOMIC BAROMETRES'

Edmonton's Food Bank is also adjusting its strategy amid rising demand and has made some changes to its hamper program.

"I've been around since 1988," said Tamisan Bencz-Knight, EFB's manager of strategic relationships and partnerships. "We have never experienced the volumes of people and the need in our community that we have right now."

Inflation and rising costs of living have disproportionately hit people on fixed incomes, like seniors or AISH recipients, she said. As buying power shrinks, more people are in need of a little help.

"Food banks are those economic barometres," she said. "We will be the first to experience an economic downturn and we're going to be the last to recover."

The extent of the demand has forced the EFB to change how food is handed out. Hamper sizes have been adjusted and the bank has reduced the number of boxes per month to three, down from four.

"That's to allow us to make sure that we can stretch the food that's coming in as best we can," Bencz-Knight said.

The EFB was given $280,000 in November by the Alberta government. That's around four weeks worth of groceries, Bencz-Knight said, since the bank spends around $250,000 each month to supplement food donations enough help everyone that needs it.

“We’re serving over 30,000 people a month through our hamper programs alone," she added. "For an equivalent, that’s more than the population of Leduc.”

Bencz-Knight said food donations are always appreciated, but that fresh food needs to be dropped off at the warehouse and not placed in donation boxes.

Cash donations are also appreciated and can be made through the EFB website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach