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Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount 2026 recorded 2.35 million visits in March, up 8.7 per cent from the previous year and nearly 117 per cent since 2019. Among food banks responding to its capacity survey, 51 per cent reported distributing less food than usual because supplies were running short, while 21 per cent ran out before meeting demand.

CHARLEBOIS: Food banks are doing heroic work. Governments are making it necessary Back to video

Behind those numbers are volunteers stretching donations, employees managing impossible budgets and families hoping there will be something left when their turn comes. These organizations are absorbing the consequences of policy decisions they neither designed nor control.

We cannot keep congratulating them for meeting growing demand without asking why that demand keeps growing.

One uncomfortable question concerns immigration.

More newcomers relying on food banks

The report identifies people who have lived in Canada for ten years or less as nearly 31 per cent of food bank clients, compared with approximately 13 per cent in 2019. Their share declined from the previous year, even as total visits increased. This category........

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