More than half a million people accessed food banks in Ontario during pandemic
Feed Ontario released its 2021 Hunger Report recently, and it shows food bank usage is soaring in the province.
Feed Ontario said more than 590,000 people in the province accessed food banks over the course of a year. The organization looked at food bank visits starting in April 2020 to the end of March 2021.
Officials said this is the largest single-year increase in a decade.
“This equates to approximately 3.6 billion times, so a 12 per cent increase from last year in terms of how many times they’ve come to food banks,” said Siu Mee Cheng, executive director with Feed Ontario.
“Sadly, of this population we are seeing some of society's most vulnerable visiting the food banks.”
Cheng said food banks also saw a 36 per cent increase in the number of older adults.
“That is the population group that saw the biggest increase in the foodbank data," she said.
"In fact, we’ve seen a 64 per cent increase since 2008. So that is the largest group that has grown on the foodbank visits."
Feed Ontario said it expects the numbers will be even higher in next year’s report.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of 'catastrophic' damage
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Trump's lawyers try to discredit testimony of prosecution's first witness in hush money trial
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.