The number of people seeking assistance from the Barrie Food Bank continues to grow as the organization fell short of its money and food donation target during the holiday campaign.
"We came in a little under our target of $1,000,000 from the holiday campaign receiving $870,000 in financial donations," said Sharon Palmer, Barrie Food Bank executive director. "We also received just under 200,000 pounds of food donations vs our target of 500,000 pounds."
However, the results were a significant increase over the 2022 campaign.
The number of individuals who used the food bank last month was just over 6,000, a 153 per cent increase from a year ago.
"The largest growth year-over-year was in the number of families seeking food support at just over 1,000," said Palmer.
Organizations across the country reported an increase in users last year. National network Food Banks Canada counted 1,935,911 visits to food banks in March 2023 — the latest data available — a 32.1 per cent increase from March 2022 and a 78.5 per cent jump from March 2019.
In Ontario, visits surged 36 per cent — to 5,888,685 — between April 2022 and March 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a November release from Feed Ontario.
Palmer said they are grateful for the tremendous support from the community.
"We saw many more food drives this year and many generous financial donations from businesses, service clubs, churches, and individuals. Without this support, we could not continue to meet the need."
Files from The Canadian Press
