Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank sees 170% increase in visits compared to pre-pandemic levels

Non-perishable food items are seen at a Daily Bread Food Bank drive.

The Daily Bread Food Bank says its locations saw a 170 per cent increase in visits last month compared to the same period before the COVID-19 pandemic, as Toronto continues to tackle a food insecurity crisis.

The non-profit organization launched its Thanksgiving Drive campaign on Thursday in an effort to raise funds and donations for overwhelmed food banks this season.

“Food bank usage has tripled since the start of the pandemic. The Daily Bread has been there and has responded positively. We've responded by increasing the amount of food, the quality of food has also really improved,” Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington said at a news conference in Toronto Thursday morning.

Heatherington said there were about 60,000 people accessing Toronto food banks before the pandemic and that number has since doubled during the pandemic and continues to grow.

“Between January when inflation started to creep in and today that number has skyrocketed again to 182,000 Torontonians. And it's been a very, very difficult time for too many,” Heatherington said.

On a daily basis, Heatherington said the Daily Bread is delivering 100,000 pounds of food across the city.

With inflation and rising food costs, Hetherington said more people are relying on food donations this year but food banks are struggling to keep up.

“...It hasn't been easy. It’s meant that we have had to invest more and more in food purchasing and our food budget has risen as a result. It's risen from $1.6 million a year to $13 million spent on food,” he said.

In support of the Thanksgiving Drive, Purolator is launching its Red Bag campaign where 25,000 red bags will be distributed to select neighbourhoods, including the Annex, Roncesvalles, Danforth and Riverdale.

Toronto Mayor John Tory is seen at the launch of the Daily Bread Food Bank's Thanksgiving Drive on Sept. 22, 2022.

Residents will receive the bags on Saturday, Sept. 24 and are encouraged to fill them with non-perishable food donations.

Bags will then be collected a week later on Oct. 1 and distributed to individuals and families in need this Thanksgiving season.

The most in-demand items that food banks need include peanut butter, canned beans, tuna, canned fruit/vegetables and oatmeal.

Food donations can also be dropped off at any fire hall in the city.

Monetary donations or online orders of non-perishables that will be delivered to the Daily Bread warehouse can be made at www.dailybread.ca.

Daily Bread aims to raise $3 million and 336,000 pounds of food this year to meet demand across the city.

“If everybody brought one can of food, if everybody brought $5, you know, if everybody in the city mobilized themselves to do that this campaign would be overflowing with success,” Mayor John Tory said at the campaign launch.

To address overall food insecurity in Toronto, Heatherington said the city needs to focus on three key pillars: affordable housing, sufficient government subsidies for individuals with disabilities and access to secure jobs.

Tory said the city is “making great strides” and actively working to tackle those targets.

“...I think most important to me is the economy. If people can have a strong recovery in the City of Toronto, if they can get a good secure job, then they are going to be much better able to provide for themselves and much less reliant on things like Daily Bread,” Tory said.

“We're working hard on all three and that's all that we can do but we have to do it together with the other levels of government, not just on our own,” he added.