As it has annually since the pandemic, the number of people visiting Toronto food banks for the first time soared again over the last year, and newcomers to Canada are among the largest cohort of new users. According to the Daily Bread and North York Harvest food bank’s Who’s Hungry Report 2024 – compiled using data from almost 1,400 users and 67 community sites, along with independent research and analysis – 154,700 new clients availed of their services between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. “This is an astonishing 222 per cent increase in new food bank clients compared to just two years ago,” the report reads, noting that the figures are an underestimate as they don’t include data from anonymous visits.
Overall, the facilities had a record-breaking 3.48 million visitors over the year, one million more than the previous and almost four times as many recorded before COVID-19. The report notes it took 38 years to surpass the one-million visit mark, two years to pass the two-million and just a year to hit three million.
“Based on our projections and the worsening level of poverty in our communities, we expect to exceed four million visits by this time next year.” Data also indicated that 4 in 5 of the new users are people who have called Canada home for five years or less and usage by refugee claimants also doubled to 12 per cent over the previous year, both of which, the report notes, align with permanent and temporary international migration fuelling 97..
