Mirrors rising provincial average
MINDEMOYA—The release of the Manitoulin Hunger Report shows a number of disturbing trends as rising numbers of children are among those seeking food support—reflecting the social challenges unveiled in the Feed Ontario Report and the normalization of hunger.
“MFR’s food bank is experiencing the same increase in usage as the rest of the province and country,” said MFR Executive Director Colleen Hill. “Early in 2025 we saw a slight decrease, however for the last six months we are seeing those numbers climb higher than ever before.”
The change in who is accessing the food bank is particularly unsettling, she notes.
“Many of the families and individuals who need our support are working full time and still can’t make ends meet because wages have not kept up to the cost of living,” said Ms. Hill. “We are always able to help because of the incredible generosity of our volunteers, Island businesses and the community at large. Without all of them we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
Worse yet, the age cohort is even more disturbing.
“What is most heartbreaking is that over 30 percent of our food bank clients are children,” continued Ms. Hill. “In a country as rich as Canada, no one should have to go hungry. It will take all of us working together to end hunger.”
“The food bank model is one that is fundamentally designed to respond to an emergency need, but emergencies are supposed to end,” notes Feed Ontario CEO Carolyn Stewart in the report. “Instead, hunger is becoming an accepted ‘new normal’ in our province and food banks are becoming a way to subsidize governments’ balanced budgets and corporations’ profit margins. This is not sustainable. While a high level of food bank use is unacceptable in and of itself, we are at the precipice of something much worse. As a province, we cannot let ‘hunger’ be normal. This is not acceptable today and it is not the future we want for our children and their families.”
“Food bank use is on the rise all across the country and our community is no exception,” notes the report. “From April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, the Manitoulin Family Resources Food Bank served a total of 4,588 individuals (that’s 1,635 households). This represents a seven percent increase over 2022-23 and a 46.2 percent increase over 2018-2019 (pre-COVID times).”
Of the 1,635 households who visited during that period, 28 percent had never visited the food bank before (a 1.4 percent increase over newcomers in 2022-23). “This number is similar to our pre-COVID rates, where approximately 28 percent of our clients each year would be first-time visitors,” continues the report. “As with last year’s Manitoulin Hunger Report, the communities least represented in percentage of food bank visits are those located furthest from the MFR Food Bank in Mindemoya.”
The report suggests that factor is most likely due to transportation barriers.
Manitoulin Island’s First Nation community members made up 72.42 percent of all food bank visits in 2023-24 (that compares to 68 percent in 2022-23). Self-identified Indigenous clients represent 52.2 percent of the food bank’s clientele, that despite making up only 40.6 percent of Manitoulin’s total population.
“It is safe to say that our Indigenous community members are vastly overrepresented in our food bank statistics,” notes the report.
“The three age groups most highly represented amongst food bank visitors were visitors ages 25-35 (17 percent), ages 7-13 (16 percent of visitors) and ages 36-50 (15 percent of visitors). The least represented age brackets were teenagers aged 14-17 (seven percent) and young adults aged 18-24 (eight percent). Nevertheless, children and youth still represented over one third (36 percent) of all food bank visits in 2023-24.”
The date is consistent with provincial and national averages and represents an unfortunate reality for youth from which the Island is not shielded.
Over 50 percent of food bank clients visited only once or twice over the course of a year, highlighting the stopgap nature of its use. While food bank support is normally available to clients every 28 days, that can change as needed, dependent on urgent situations such as separation of family, the impact of unexpected expenses or other household emergencies.
“While some of our clients require consistent support from our food bank, many simply need help making ends meet when expenses get too tight to bear,” notes the report.
While donations from the public and provincial agencies are important sources of food aid, one in seven of Ontario’s food banks purchase 20 percent of the food stuffs they distribute. MFR depends heavily on monetary donations than most, with purchases making up almost half of the items filling the shelves (49.3 percent).
Things are not getting any better. From 2022-23 to 2023-24, there was a seven percent increase in individuals served at MFR’s food bank, that’s 4,588 visits. The report points out that the busiest month for the food bank was in August 2023, which saw a total of 495 visits. The 2023-24 year represented a 46.2 percent increase over our pre-COVID rates of food bank usage, and the report points out that this trend is showing no sign of slowing down.
There is some hope on the horizon, although the report asserts that Canada is the only G7 country without a national school food program, that changed in the 2024 federal budget. An initial investment of $1 billion allocated over five years (2025-29) in that budget, the National School Food Program will receive permanent funding of $216.6 million per year starting in 2029/30. That helps leverage $108.5 million in Ontario thanks to an agreement between the federal and provincial governments and will roll out over the next three years to help fund a school food program in the province.
But the need is still there now. The causes of what appears to be a growing crisis would be no surprise to most—food inflation, the high cost of housing and the lack of public transportation are all contributing factors.
The Expositor Business Challenge gathers non-perishable food items and toys for the annual MFR Christmas Basket campaign, which is separate from the data contained in the report.
Monetary donations to the MFR Food Bank can be made online through CanadaHelps.org, or by email transfer to finance@mfresources.net. If you indicate your name, mailing address and contact number in the message box you can receive a tax receipt. You can also mail a cheque or money order to post office Box 181, Mindemoya, ON, P0P 1S0.
