Call to action following Food Banks Canada report

Julie Cloutier is on a fixed income and knows where she would be if a food bank wasn’t available to her.

“If there wasn't no food banks I'd be living on the street,” she tells CTV News Windsor.

Cloutier was one of a couple hundred people at the weekly food bank at Adie Knox run by the UHC (Unemployed Help Centre of Windsor Inc.) Hub of Opportunities.

“Everything just goes up so high and then when you go shopping all the people who have the money get all the good things,” she says. “People like us...Pft.”

A record number of Canadians, including Cloutier, used a food bank this year according to a new report released Thursday by Food Banks Canada. About 1.5 million Canadians visited a food bank in March, up 15 per cent from last March and 35 per cent more than March of 2019.

“I think the report shows why it's important that governments focus on affordability and making sure that more money gets back in people's pockets,” says Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie.

He adds, “I look forward to going down that road and seeing what we can do as a government to bring cost down and put money back in people’s pockets so that the high food costs and supply chain costs get offset by saving that our government can provide for them.”

A main hub for 15 food banks in Essex-County, the UHC saw a 59 per cent increase in visits from 2019 to 2022 between the months of January to September.

“People hear we need food, we're feeding people, but now today if you're on a fixed income it's a necessity,” says June Muir, CEO of the UHC Hub of Opportunities. “It's crazy and I can't keep up with the lineup.”

Rajan Yadav willingly tolerates the long lines, saying, “This is what I rely on.”

Yadav is a computer science student at the University of Windsor. Because he's an international studentt Rajan is limited to 20 hours of work per week making life a tough balance.

“It's not enough to pay all the bills so I hope in future we get full increase of working limits,” he says.

Limited to one trip to the food bank every two weeks, students such as Anik Mukaddas do their best to stretch what they have.

“I usually eat once a day. Not twice. Not I eat breakfast, lunch then dinner. No,” Mukaddas says. “I try to have it only once so that I can manage it for the whole week.”

According to Muir, lines are getting bigger and the donations have dwindled. She would like to see government make policy changes but in the meantime is calling residents to action.

“If everybody donates five dollars throughout Windsor and Essex County or more we could buy food and how long that would last we don't know, but boy would it ever help,” she says.

If you are in a position to help out the UHC encourages residents to log on to their website and click the donate button on their home page.