Half of Canada’s food banks are located in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 residents.
Katharine Schmidt, executive director of the Canadian Association of Food Banks (CAFB), says that is a clear sign that hunger and poverty maintain a significant presence in rural areas.
“Those food banks are a real symbol of the struggle many rural people have to get enough food,” she said.
“And absolutely, the people who use those food banks include farmers and farm families.”
In its annual HungerCount report, the CAFB said rural food bank users are disproportionately senior or disabled compared to urban users. Many own their own homes and many also work at low paying jobs.
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As well, food bank operators report that rural residents often use city food banks for fear of being seen by neighbours when lining up to get food.
“It is not easy to go for food, to line up in front of others to say you can’t put enough food on your family’s table,” Schmidt said.
She also suggested many in rural Canada may struggle to feed their families but do not have access to a food bank.
“One thing we don’t know is how many people actually need assistance or could use assistance but can’t get it because there are no food bank services nearby or that are accessible.”
The CAFB report said that in March 2007 when the annual survey was conducted, more than 720,000 people received groceries or meals from food banks. It was a slight decrease from a year earlier.
However, University of Toronto nutritional sciences professor Valerie Tarasuk argued in the report that the number reported was much lower than the reality.
“Some estimates imply that for every person using a food bank in March of 2007, there were four or five more who were struggling to obtain the food they needed,” she wrote.
“Thus the numbers reported in the HungerCount 2007 are probably just the tip of the iceberg.”
The report said hunger is part of the “dark side” of the Alberta economic boom because high prices and inflation hit those whose incomes are not keeping pace. The percentage of people using food banks despite the fact that they had jobs was 27 percent, the highest in the country,
Bill Hall, executive director of Food Banks of Saskatchewan, warned his province soon could be facing the same boom “dark side” that Alberta has faced.
“A disturbing trend is starting to appear,” he wrote.
“Those on fixed incomes are experiencing an increase in the cost of housing as a result of the boom. My concern is that this group of food bank users will increase in the next few years as property taxes rise to reflect the increased value of homes and as rents rise in a province that lacks any type of rent controls.”
Hall said Saskatchewan’s economic growth is coming at a price.
“Saskatchewan is poised to experience the same social concerns and pressures that are already being felt by its western neighbours Alberta and British Columbia.”
