This holiday season, Quebec food banks are seeing a growing demand for aid

Virginie Charron hadn't visited a food bank in two years when she drove up to the Centre de bénévolat et moisson Laval on a bright but brisk Monday afternoon.

She didn't think she'd need to once she got a job. But her paycheck isn't enough to feed her family of five, and her partner gets less work over the winter months.

"With one income in 2023, you don't get very far," she said while loading a shopping cart of groceries into her car. She estimates the food would have cost her $250 at a supermarket.

With the holiday season comes a critical fundraising campaign period for the food bank. Executive director Jean Gagnon hopes there will be enough donations this year — about 200,000 kilos' worth of food —  to keep the warehouse stocked until February.

After that, they'll have to dip into their own funds, stretching each dollar as much as possible to keep the shelves full.

"You don't stop being hungry after the Christmas campaign," says Gagnon. 

He says the food bank's strained budget is always on his mind.

Gathering enough food to meet the swelling demand for aid has been a common struggle for the province's food banks according to Martin Munger, executive director of Food Banks of Quebec  — CBC Quebec's charity of the year for 2023 and the umbrella organization that works with food banks like Centre de bénévolat et moisson Laval.

He says the rising cost of living has pushed more people into food insecurity.

Through 1,284 community organizations, Food Banks of Quebec provides food aid to 872,000 people every month, according to its 2023 report on hunger. That's an increase of 73 per cent since 2019. 

"Our network was not developed to help so many people," says Munger. "There will always be people who will momentarily lose their jobs, get separated, fall ill, and originally food banks were set up for that."

The organization solicits large volumes of food donations from producers, wholesalers and processors, among others, and redistributes them among its 32 regional members, often called "Moissons." The members in turn supply local food assistance organizations with stock and, in some cases, ready-made meals. 

The West Island Assistance Fund, for example, receives food donations from Moisson Montréal on Mondays and Wednesdays. 

Laziz Mouloudji was a client there before becoming a volunteer 10 years ago. Back then, Mouloudji says most people came into the food bank by foot. Now it's common for clients to own a car and live in a double-income household. 

Everyone registered with the food bank still has had to submit a notice of assessment and qualify as low-income. 

"It's mister and madame everybody now," says Mouloudji.

Donations not matching need

The organization used to rely solely on food donations, but that changed with the pandemic when it received some funding from donors and the government to purchase goods. Now, Food Banks of Quebec has to dip into its own funds to purchase food as demand keep growing.

That gap between demand and donations has significantly widened in recent years, says Véronique Beaulieu-Fowler, the organization's director of philanthropy.

Inflation coupled with changing practices within the agro-industry have also made the flow of donations into Food Banks of Quebec less predictable, such as farmers using surplus crops as fertilizer, and production lines that can more quickly fix packaging errors.

To bridge the gap, she says Food Banks of Quebec is working to have more producers commit to providing a certain share of their goods. But building on those agreements requires more funding. 

In its most recent economic update, the Quebec government announced it would give a one-time payment of $10 million to the Food Banks of Quebec network. But that was $8 million less than what the organization had asked for.

Munger says he hopes the money will sustain them during the holiday season but doubts it will carry them through until the end of the fiscal year.

He hopes Food Banks of Quebec can work with the government on a more regular basis to solve issues of predictability and allow for better long-term planning.

It's his impression that officials are now grasping the extent of food insecurity in Quebec. But he says more needs to be done to address the root causes of poverty.

"I think they understood," he says. "Maybe a bit late but I think they are aware and they are convinced that it's a big problem right now."

During the month of December, CBC will be working with Food Banks of Quebec to showcase stories of people in our community who are making a difference for our "Make the Season Kind" campaign. For more stories and to learn more about this campaign, visit cbc.ca/bekindqc. You can make a donation to Food Banks of Quebec here.