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Demand on Orangeville Food Bank expected to outpace donations in coming years

December 20, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

The Orangeville Food Bank and Dufferin Food Share recently released a community update, showing a steady rise in usage year over year.

Comparing data from November 2023 to November 2024, there has been a 31 per cent increase in food bank usage. Almost a third (32 per cent) of those accessing the food bank are children and there’s been a 23 per cent increase in single adults accessing its services.

Looking back to 2020, the Orangeville Food Bank served 610 individuals in November and during the same month this year, it served 1,487, representing a 145 per cent increase.

With the increase in demand continuing year over year, Orangeville Food Bank executive director Heather Hayes said the organization won’t be able to keep up in the future.

“Feeding people is our heart but in order to do that we need to ensure that we have the capacity for non-perishable storage; cold storage; volunteer management; facilities and utilities and the funds to purchase food as donations continue to dip,” said Hayes in the food bank’s community update.

“We work incredibly hard every day to try and meet the need. For the first time in the 10 years, I’ve been with the food bank, this year our shelves were bare; our facilities are inadequate to hold the volume of food we need monthly or to even let people sit down as they wait to be served.  I am incredibly worried about how we will accommodate the increases we know are coming.”

Hayes said food insecurity is not a food problem, it’s an income problem. With this in mind, she hopes that in the next election cycle, candidates will focus on repairing the country’s social safety net and lifting residents out of poverty. 

“Without change, food banks will slowly unravel and as a last patch in a broken system, many will slip further into poverty and homelessness,” said Hayes.

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