Hunger continues to stalk the Tri-Cities as the Christmas season approaches with no appreciable drop in food bank use since the recession.
In fact, 29.8% more people are using the local food bank now compared to three years ago and many of those individuals come from the ranks of the unemployed, the disabled and wage earners. The biggest increase was 23.5% from 2009 to 2010, with a further 6.3% jump in 2011.
"Food is barely keeping pace," said Share Family and Community Services' Heather Scott, who said Tri-City residents have answered the call for more food to meet the demand and are dropping off food or contributing to donation bins at grocery stores.
But Share has only two weeks of stockpiled food compared to two months stored on shelves at this time in 2008/'09 and, with the holiday season approaching, Scott expects the need will be even greater. "Christmas is just a really challenging time. The rest of the year, families manage to get by but at Christmastime, the strain is too much," Scott said.
She predicts that as many as 1,800 families will sign up for food hampers - more than double the number of families Share typically sees every two weeks.
According to the most recent statistics, Share saw a 31% increase in the demand for food between 2008/2009 and 2010/2011, with 8,634 people using the food bank last year, compared to 6,594 three years previous.
There has been no noticeable decline since, although there are month-to-month fluctuations.
"This year, what we're seeing is some weeks we're 5% down, other weeks are 5% up. Right now, it's safe to say the numbers are staying quite consistent," Scott said. "But we won't know until the end of the year when we can compare year to year."
But Tri-Cities food bank use is markedly different from the rest of B.C., in which food bank use increased 16% between March of 2008 and March 2011, and numbers have dropped slightly since then.
The 2011 Hunger Count compiled by B.C. food banks noted that almost 100,000 people are using food banks in B.C., and more than 30% of them are children.
Last year in the Tri-Cities, more unemployed people, the disabled and working poor started using the food bank compared to the year previous.
In 2010/2011, 16% of Tri-City food bank users were people with paid employment, up from 13% the year previous; 27% were on disability income, up from 22%; and 7% were on unemployment insurance, compared to 5% in 2009/'10. Meanwhile, fewer people on welfare used the food bank last year - 32% compared to 39% - and numbers of people with no income dropped to 7% from 9%.
