B.C. food banks warn of ‘perfect storm’ with record demand, low donations

Food banks around B.C. are warning of a “perfect storm” of record demand and low donations.

Food Banks BC says that for the first time ever, its members have served 100,000 users in a single month.

However, donations are closing in on near all-time lows.

New numbers from the Greater Vancouver Food Bank show a picture of the increasing reliance on its service, with the organization seeing a 30 per cent increase in adult clients, a 24 per cent increase in families and a 16 per cent increase in seniors.

“Last month alone, in the month of August, we had 482 new clients, which represents probably about 1,500 people,” Kim Savage with the Surrey Food Bank told Global News.

“And so that’s a lot of new people accessing our services, which means as people are coming through the door, we’re a little bit more careful in terms of how much we are able to give them per visit.”

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The top three reasons people give for accessing the food bank are the high costs of food and housing, coupled with low wages.