风萧萧_Frank
以文会友
60% more Canadians per month expected to use food banks, other programs in 2023, survey finds
Scarborough's need for food banks is so great that one non-profit is opening a 6th location
加拿大人有全职工作仍三餐不继，靠食物银行过活
2023-04-25 16:22
通膨飙升持续挤压加拿大人买菜预算，多伦多（Toronto）“每日面包食物银行”负责人表示，每个月都有数以十万计民众涌入食物银行，其中许多人有正职工作但仍无法维持生计。
COVID-19 疫情期间，使用“每日面包食物银行”服务的人数增加一倍，每月平均有12万人需要救济，且人流持续成长，今年3月增至创纪录的27万人。(图/shutterstock)
“每日面包食物银行”（Daily Bread Food Bank）执行长海瑟林顿（Neil Hetherington）最近接受法新社访问时说：“这个国家绝对已陷入粮食危机，多伦多市肯定是这样。”
COVID-19（2019冠状病毒疾病）疫情期间，使用“每日面包食物银行”服务的人数增加一倍，每月平均有12万人需要救济，且人流持续成长，今年3月增至创纪录的27万人。
海瑟林顿说，每日面包合作的多伦多地区128家食物银行中，许多新面孔都有全职工作，但他们还是入不敷出。
加拿大3月整体通膨已从去年6月高峰8.1%降至4.3%，但粮食通膨率居高不下，与去年同期相比增加约10%。
海瑟林顿指出，加重加拿大人日常开销重担的还有居住成本，这是因为去年房地产价格暴涨，无论是租屋还是买屋都让加拿大人吃不消。
根据房地产研究公司Urbanation的报告，加拿大最大城市多伦多的套房公寓，每月成本平均来到2124加币（约新台币4万8936元），比去年约380加币高出许多。
民众帕奇森（Ryan Patcheson）18个月前开始来到食物银行，他领取身心障碍补助，但还是不足以生活。
30多岁的帕奇森告诉法新社，“每个月底（从食物银行）得到几袋米与一些马铃薯，影响真的天差地远的”。
在蒙特娄（Montreal），来到食物银行的民众有着同样的绝望感，也有着同样的需要，圣吉尔伯特（Saint-Gilbert）教堂外排了等待领取物资的长长人龙。这座教堂的地下室19日也被阿勒特-上帝协会（Association Alerte-Providence）用来分送食物。
经营阿勒特-上帝协会30多年并在约10年前成立食物银行的亚勒特（Paula Alerte）说，食物银行服务的“需求每周都在增加”，捐赠物资总是不够，所以她有时候会自行购买大量的食物，分送给救济对象。
她说：“我知道每样东西都变贵，但没有食物我们无法生活。需求就是会有。”她停了一会儿，把数袋食物发送给民众，之后又说：“每个星期三，我都担心没有足够食物发给大家。”
教堂外的排队人龙移动缓慢，队伍内大多是年轻人、退休人士与移民。
20岁的乌克兰人斯洛博迪努克（Sofiia Slobodianiuk）最近落脚加拿大，这是她第一次来到食物银行。她说：“超市的蔬菜对我来说真的太贵了，所以我只好求助食物银行。”
加拿大物价飙涨日子苦 求助食物银行人数攀升
（法新社多伦多25日电） 通膨飙升持续挤压加拿大人买菜预算，多伦多（Toronto）「每日面包食物银行」负责人表示，每个月都有数以十万计民众涌入食物银行，其中许多人有正职工作但仍无法维持生计。
「每日面包食物银行」（Daily Bread Food Bank）执行长海瑟林顿（Neil Hetherington）最近接受法新社访问时说：「这个国家绝对已陷入粮食危机，多伦多市肯定是这样。」
COVID-19（2019冠状病毒疾病）疫情期间，使用「每日面包食物银行」服务的人数增加一倍，每月平均有12万人需要救济，且人流持续成长，今年3月增至创纪录的27万人。
海瑟林顿说，每日面包合作的多伦多地区128家食物银行中，许多新面孔都有全职工作，但他们还是入不敷出。
加拿大3月整体通膨已从去年6月高峰8.1%降至4.3%，但粮食通膨率居高不下，与去年同期相比增加约10%。
海瑟林顿指出，加重加拿大人日常开销重担的还有居住成本，这是因为去年房地产价格暴涨，无论是租屋还是买屋都让加拿大人吃不消。
根据房地产研究公司Urbanation的报告，加拿大最大城市多伦多的套房公寓，每月成本平均来到2124加币（约新台币4万8936元），比去年约380加币高出许多。
民众帕奇森（Ryan Patcheson）18个月前开始来到食物银行，他领取身心障碍补助，但还是不足以生活。
30多岁的帕奇森告诉法新社，「每个月底（从食物银行）得到几袋米与一些马铃薯，影响真的天差地远的」。
在蒙特娄（Montreal），来到食物银行的民众有着同样的绝望感，也有着同样的需要，圣吉尔伯特（Saint-Gilbert）教堂外排了等待领取物资的长长人龙。这座教堂的地下室19日也被阿勒特-上帝协会（Association Alerte-Providence）用来分送食物。
经营阿勒特-上帝协会30多年并在约10年前成立食物银行的亚勒特（Paula Alerte）说，食物银行服务的「需求每周都在增加」，捐赠物资总是不够，所以她有时候会自行购买大量的食物，分送给救济对象。
Toronto food banks are at 'breaking point,' says Daily Bread CEO, calling on province to boost social supports
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-food-bank-visits-record-1.6800927#:~:text=
Food bank wants to see a return of the provincially provided top-up to social assistance recipients
Lane Harrison · CBC News
The Daily Bread Food Bank is spending $1.8 million a month a food. Before the onset of COVID-19 it spent $1.5 million a year, its CEO says. (Pelin Sidki/CBC)
More people visited Daily Bread Food Bank locations in March than at any time in the charity's 40-year history, its CEO said Tuesday while calling on the province to do more to help people fight the high price of groceries.
Prior to the pandemic, the network of 128 food banks across the Greater Toronto Area saw about 65,000 clients a month. In March, that number more than quadrupled to 270,000, Neil Hetherington said at a news conference Tuesday. The charity is also now spending $1.8 million a month on food. Before the onset of COVID-19, it spent $1.5 million a year.
"Let me be very clear: we are in a crisis. The Daily Bread Food Bank and food banks all across the city are at a breaking point," Hetherington said.
Hetherington added the problem is not one that charities can fix. Instead, he called on the provincial government to provide people on social assistance with the same emergency supports they were provided during the pandemic.
Neil Hetherington, CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank, said the rise in food insecurity can't be solved by charities alone. (Pelin Sidki/CBC)
The food bank wants to see a return of the provincially provided top-up to social assistance recipients, which was $100 for singles and $200 families. The top-up was available between March and July 31, 2020, but it was provided at the discretion of caseworkers. The food bank would like to see it return as an automatic benefit to cover the high cost of food people are currently grappling with.
'Some nights, you just don't do dinner': Toronto is becoming even more unaffordable, data confirms
In response to Hetherington's comments, a spokesperson for Ontario's ministry of children, community and social services said the Ontario Disability Support Program will be tied to inflation beginning in July 2023, a move originally announced in November 2022.
The statement to CBC News also pointed to a 400 per cent increase in the ODSP earning exemption, which allows recipients to earn $1,000 per month while receiving the benefit, up from $200. The exemption increase took effect in February.
How it got to this point
Daily Bread is also in a precarious financial position. The charity put aside $33 million to get through the pandemic and that money will run out in 18 to 24 months, Hetherington said.
When that reserve dries up, he said they'll have to raise more money or food donations. Most crucially, he said, the number of clients will need to go down, which is why they're calling on the province to step in.
"We got here because we chose to legislate individuals to live in poverty through income supports that are abysmal," Hetherington said.
Even with the help of food banks, Sue-Ellen Patcheson and her four roommates usually have one or two meals a day. (Pelin Sidki/CBC)
Much of the food bank's clientele are people whose income comes from social assistance programs like Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, he said.
Ontario Works provides recipients with $733 a month and ODSP provides up to $1,228. Hetherington said those are both too low, with the ODSP payment being $900 below the poverty line in Toronto.
Sue-Ellen Patcheson is a volunteer and client of the Daily Bread Food Bank who relies on government assistance. Before the pandemic, she said she and the four people she lives with had $300 a month leftover for food. These days, she said that budget is a bit lower and doesn't buy half as much.
Daily Bread is in a precarious financial position. The charity put aside $33 million to get through the pandemic and that money will run out in 18 to 24 months, Hetherington said. (Pelin Sidki/CBC)
"Most days we eat maybe one meal, occasionally two meals a day. [Without the food bank] that would be reduced even further and I can't imagine," she said.
Food bank visits have also increased among people whose primary source of income is employment, Hetherington said. The percentage of those clients has doubled in the last year, from 16 per cent to 33 per cent.
"It used to be that if you went to school, got an education, got a job, you would be just fine. That isn't the case anymore," he said.
Valerie Tarasuk said the high price of groceries is driving more people to food banks. (CBC)
Valerie Tarasuk is a professor in the University of Toronto's department of nutritional sciences and the lead investigator of PROOF, a research program looking into policy interventions that can reduce food insecurity in Canada.
She said food inflation is worsening the severity of food insecurity people are experiencing, driving more people to food banks.
PROOF's 2021 food insecurity report, the most recent, found 5.8 million Canadians are food insecure across the 10 provinces, Tarasuk said. About one in four of those people end up at food banks, she said.
"What I think is happening now with food price inflation is we've got more people being pushed to that extreme point and they're surfacing in numbers like Daily Bread's," she said.
Lane Harrison is a web writer with CBC Toronto. He previously worked for CBC New Brunswick in Saint John. You can reach him at lane.harrison@cbc.ca
