Food banks in Canada have, unfortunately, become part of our social landscape and Sidney, Central Saanich, and North Saanich communities are no exception.
Let’s start with some statistics.
More than 700 food banks are running more than 30,000 food programs across Canada. In the latest published statistics from Food Banks Canada, those food banks reported 2,059,636 visits in March 2024 – up six per cent from March last year and nearly double the monthly visits in March 2019.
Those figures are consistent with the food bank experience in Sidney and on the Peninsula.
“We’re seeing 500 families a month right now who are using our food bank,” said Tyson Elder, the operations manager of the Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank. "That’s families, so the number of people, on average would be about 2,000 clients."
That number is up by about 100 families from the same time last year – about a 20 per cent increase in the number of people needing help to feed themselves and their families over a 12-month span.
And it’s not exclusively the unhoused or unemployed who are feeling the impact of hunger.
“We have a lot of families where mom and dad are both working hard but it’s so expensive to live out here and those parents desperately want to be able to give their children a good life. That might be putting them in an after-school activity or into sports, but they can’t – not when they can’t even put food on the table,” said Elder. “It’s such a shame seeing people who are working so hard still finding it hard to survive."
The Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank, located in Sidney, services all of the Peninsula communities and marks its 40th year of operation next month.
Elder stressed that the need for assistance cuts across all age groups.
“We’re seeing an increasing number of seniors come in. These are people who never dreamt that they would need a food bank, but they may have lost a partner and suddenly, without a second pension, they find that they can’t afford to feed themselves. Last month we signed up a gentleman in his 90’s. He’s never needed help before, but he needs it now.”
There are also more young people than ever before.
“We get kids coming in who may have had to leave home because of a bad situation there and who find themselves hungry and without hope,” Elder said. “It’s important that they get the food they need.”
The problem is national in scope and Food Bank Canada’s 2024 Poverty Report Card scored the federal government’s response to the problem as a D-.
“People in Canada, from coast to coast to coast, are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. Though deeply concerning, these results are sadly unsurprising to the thousands of food banks across the country who have seen a 50 per cent increase in visits since 2021,” explains Food Banks Canada CEO Kirstin Beardsley.
On the Peninsula, the food bank relies not on government support, but on the community's generosity. The local grocery outlets allow food donation bins to be located in their stores and participate in food recovery programs that allow Elder and his crew to “rescue” food nearing expiry.
“We rescue dairy, meat, produce and bread. Every day we get about two pallets of food that we can then distribute to clients,” said Elder. “That alone has allowed us to expand our services so that every Tuesday and Thursday clients can come pick up some fresh produce.”
Cash donations are also invaluable to the food bank as arrangements that Elder has made with warehouses and grocers allow him to multiply the value of cash donations.
“For every dollar that we take in we can purchase almost two dollars of food,” he said.
In the coming months, the sense of generosity surrounding the holiday season will result in an influx of donations and that’s wonderful, Elder explained. But the problem, he notes, is that hunger doesn’t end with the passing of the holidays.
“We get a lot of donations in December but were out by the end of January. Donations dry up in the new year, and although we have some generous donors who stay on generally after the holiday the donations slow down or stop.”
“People need to eat all year round and we have times, after Christmas, for example, when donations dry up. Our worst months (for donations) are over the summer, yet September is one of our busiest periods.”
“We’re always short on school snacks and things like cereal,” he said.
So how can people help?
Obviously, donations to the food bins at the local grocery stores are important as are the various food drives promoted by volunteers. Cash donations, though, tend to have the highest multiplier effect and can be made at splfoodbank.com/.
“I do this work because I love it. We work hard to be welcoming and friendly and to remove the stigma that’s often associated with using a food bank,” Elder said. “Remember that, like you and other people out there, our clients probably never thought they’d need a food bank. But you never know when something will happen in life and we want to be there to help if it does.”
The food bank is located in Sidney at 9586 Fifth Street. Anyone who is hungry and in need of help can simply go to the site to register for assistance.
