Crisis at food banks is reality check of the Canadian dream

Josephine Sindani was eight when she first went to a food bank. She was adapting to the chilly Ottawa winters where she and her mother had shifted to from Sudan, a tropical country. That day, she saw her mother walk towards their home with toys, a jacket, Christmas presents and food for the kids. This is a core memory for Sindani, now into construction business. Canada’s food banks would continue to help her family through those struggling years. But now, these food banks themselves are facing a crisis. Behind this crisis is the gloomy reality of Canada, a dream destination for many Indians.
The food banks, which provide food for free, are on the brink as a record number of 2 million people have visited them in just one month, according to the Food Banks Canada HungerCount 2024 report.
This is 6% more than in 2023 and 90% more than in 2019.
Behind the record number of people seeking assistance from Canada’s food banks is runaway inflation and a never-seen-before housing crisis.
Several of these food bank visitors are newcomers to Canada. Over 32% have been in Canada for 10 years or less.
Many of these newcomers are also Indians.
In the last one decade, immigration from India to Canada surged by 326%, according to an analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). The NFAP analysis showed that enrolment of Indian students in Canadian colleges had jumped by 5,800%.
The Indian students going to private colleges in Canada rarely go there for education. It is the Canadian dream, of living in a developed western nation, that lures them.
Canada, with its easier and less-costly process to permanent residency and citizenship, became an immigrant-magnet.
Hundreds of thousands have immigrated to Canada in the last one decade, but its housing and healthcare infrastructure didn’t keep pace. The paucity of housing units, and the government’s failure to generate new jobs have put stress on people’s finances.
Combined with price rise for grocery items, the cocktail is pushing people to food banks.
The new immigrants, who haven’t found their feet in Canada, are among the people tapping the food banks.
A Canadian food bank in Vancouver has even decided to turn away international students in the first year of college.
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank argues that Canada’s policy for international students requires them to have 20,635 dollars in addition to paying for travel and tuition. That money, the food bank says, should see them through the first year.
It is anybody’s guess that there is a bulk of Indians among the international students, as Indians form the biggest cohort of foreigners studying in Canada.
An Indian on a student visa in Canada faced backlash in April after he shared a video, detailing how he obtained “free food” from food banks meant for students. He deleted the video, but it went on to show how Indian students in Canada were relying on food banks.
But these foodbanks have been a support system for many poor Canadians for decades.
For Josephine Sindani, these foodbanks became a source of sustaining their family, till her mother had a stable job. Even when Sindani grew up and became a college student in Toronto, the foodbanks helped her, reported the Canadian Press.
When her student loans were not enough to support her and her baby, she knew how to sustain herself.
“I know it very, very well, and it’s diminishing your psyche and, just like, your energy,” said Sindani. “It feels like you’re failing. That’s what it is. It feels like you’re failing. And you’re not.”
She was even helped by food banks during the pandemic when her business came to a halt.
This is not just Sindani’s story. Many Canadians have found stability in the fact that they can get food easily from food banks.
Over 5,500 food banks have come together to serve the vulnerable sections in Canada.
Inflation, which has been tamed in the last few months, and a never-seen-before housing crisis are the two pincers hitting people in Canada.
Canada’s housing market is one of the most unaffordable. Housing prices have risen over 355% between 2000 and 2021, reported The Conversation.
Canada is also seeing a high unemployment rate.
Though inflation is in the comfort zone of the Canadian central bank, the Bank of Canada, people aren’t feeling any respite while shopping for groceries or other daily items.
“That’s because while the pace at which prices grow has slowed, they mostly remain elevated,” Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, explained to Radio Canada.
While the rate of inflation is lower now, the crisis can only be solved by growth in wages in Canada. Till then, there will be high dependency on food banks.
For 30% of Canadians, food banks have run out of food as they struggle with the “one-two punch of housing and food inflation”.
The increased number of people who rely on food banks is becoming difficult to sustain.
“This unthinkable rate of growth is not something food banks, nor people in Canada, can sustain. The damage is done, and people need immediate support to help them recover. Everyone must come to the table to solve this problem. We cannot do it alone and need help to drive change,” said Kirstin Beardsley, Chief Executive Officer, Food Banks Canada.
The food banks estimate they might see a rise of 30% in visitors this year.
There is also disillusionment in Canadians who cannot even feed themselves without the food banks. A food bank in Vancouver even denied food to first year international students.
“It’s not uncommon for us to talk to someone whose rent has just been increased by $300 or $400, and for someone on a fixed income, that money’s got to come from somewhere. And usually it’s the food budget that is the first to be taken from,” a food bank executive, Lesley Burgess, told CBC.
“Food banks can relieve hunger today, but they can’t prevent hunger tomorrow,” Burgess said. “That is a part of the population that also needs to be taken care of,” Burgess added.
The solution would be a drop in prices and growing wages, according to several food bank executives.
“People need money in their pockets today,” said Beardsley, Chief Executive Officer, Food Banks Canada.
But till this solution can be churned out, people need their food banks.
“So it’s great having someone to smile at you and say, ’You know what, you’re welcome here. Let me help you. How can I do that?’ And Food Banks Canada is that person for me.” International students, many of them Indians, might be among the beneficiaries. This is why the crisis at Canada’s food banks is a reality-check for the Canadian dream.