{"id":568452,"date":"2026-03-29T10:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T10:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568452\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T10:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T10:47:15","slug":"food-banks-in-canada-need-donations-but-also-systemic-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568452\/","title":{"rendered":"Food banks in Canada need donations, but also ‘systemic change’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Food banks across the country are being forced to scale back services at a time when Canadians need them the most, due to limited supplies.<\/p>\n

In southern Saskatchewan, the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank plans to limit households to just one visit a month instead of the usual two, beginning April 1. They will also reduce the amount of food handed out to each visitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur resources aren\u2019t keeping up with the demand,\u201d said executive director Jason Moore in an interview with CTV Newsthis week.<\/p>\n

In the last four years, the number of visits to the Moose Jaw food bank increased 150 per cent, according to Moore.<\/p>\n

He says the high cost of living has played a major role in the growing demand for food banks, noting every month the organization sees 50 new households signing up for its services.<\/p>\n

Donations can\u2019t keep pace<\/p>\n

Over the years, donations have stayed steady, Moore said, but they haven\u2019t kept pace with demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an issue that goes beyond just an increase in donations. Our community has been incredibly generous for 40 years. They\u2019ve sustained our organization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo expect a community this size to be able to continue to donate more and more to keep up with this demand I think is unreasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Food banks A volunteer works to package food for visitors to take home. (Allison Bamford \/ CTV News) \u2018Having to do more with less\u2019<\/p>\n

Last year, more than half of Canada\u2019s food banks were forced to reduce the amount of food they handed out<\/a>, according to the Hunger Count 2025 report. Nearly a quarter of food banks ran out of food before meeting the needs of visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no area that\u2019s immune to this,\u201d said Dan Huang-Taylor, executive director of Food Banks B.C.<\/p>\n

Food banks in B.C. have faced record demand every year since 2019, Huang-Taylor said. But in the last 12 months they\u2019ve noticed another troubling trend.<\/p>\n

Ninety per cent of B.C. food banks have seen a drop in the amount of food donations, and 80 per cent have noticed a dip in the amount of cash donations coming in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re having to do more with less and that\u2019s just not sustainable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The root causes of food insecurity need to be addressed through policy changes at different levels of government, Huang-Taylor said, before these troubling trends can be reversed.<\/p>\n

Moore agrees and says an increase in donations alone likely won\u2019t dig the Moose Jaw food bank out of the hole. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to see systemic change. I think there needs to be some serious action taken where people\u2019s wages and income supports match the cost of living,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Moose Jaw & District Food Bank The Moose Jaw & District Food Bank will reduce its services beginning April 1. (Allison Bamford \/ CTV News) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Food banks across the country are being forced to scale back services at a time when Canadians need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-568452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}