Christmas is over, food bank demand remains high

Christmas 2017 is in the rearview mirror, but for Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold, very little has changed since the end of the holiday season.

“We’re still busier than we have ever been,” said Community Care CEO Betty-Lou Souter. “Usually after the Christmas period it takes several weeks to a month for things to even out and settle down, but that hasn’t happened yet. We’re still getting new clients every week.”

Souter said the local food bank saw an 18 per cent increase in demand for its Christmas program over 2016. That meant Community Care saw more new clients in need of help over the Christmas season than it had since 2009 at the height of the recession.

The Christmas program typically serves about 3,000 local families each year.

In January, Community Care began an analysis of the demographics of who was coming in for help and while Souter said there is still more analysis to do, the food bank has identified some trends.

The rise in demand appears to have principally come from single men and women aged 32 to 60. Souter said about 60 per cent were men and 40 per cent were women.

In the case of the women, she said many were mothers living on low incomes whose children had recently left home.

She said when those children were younger, those women received extra support through welfare that helped make ends meet. When their children left the nest, those women are trying to get by on a significantly reduced income.

Many of those women have jobs, Souter said, but they don’t pay very well.

For the men, she said, it is much the same. They are on their own and aren’t earning enough to make ends meet.

“In many cases, these are men who were downsized out of the workforce, and they are watching younger people leapfrog over them into jobs. They are getting passed over,” Souter said.

Wages continue to be a key factor that drives people to food banks in Niagara, she said.

According to Statistics Canada, the median annual individual income for St. Catharines and Niagara is $31,601, around $3,000 less than the national and provincial figures. Similarly, the local median household income is $65,068, which is around $10,000 less than the provincial number and more than $5,000 less than the national figure.