Toronto's Daily Bread food bank launched its annual Thanksgiving drive Thursday as it tries to alleviate what it calls "crisis-level" food insecurity in the city.
Neil Hetherington, CEO of Daily Bread, says the charity hopes to fundraise $4.6 million and collect some 200,000 pounds of non-perishable food during the campaign, which runs until Oct. 31.
During a news conference at a Toronto Fire station on Lansdowne Avenue, Hetherington said the organization had two million client visits between March and August, a roughly 25 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Similarly, an average of about 13,000 additional people visited food banks in the city each month this year, according to Hetherington.
"These are horrifying numbers for one of the wealthiest cities in the world, and a direct result of a lack of affordable housing, income supports and a rise in precarious employment," he said.
Daily Bread is set to spend some $29 million on food purchases this year to meet the growing demand, Hetherington added. That's up from an annual average of about $1.5 million before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Toronto Fire is a partner in the campaign, with 85 fire halls hosting donation bins where the public can drop off non-perishable food items.
"Every donation makes a difference," said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop.
Purolator is also a partner in the drive. If you live in the Annex, Parkdale, Roncesvalles or Riverdale, you may have noticed a reusable red shopping bag was dropped outside your residence last weekend.
For their part in the campaign, Purolator is asking residents in those neighbourhoods to fill the bags with non-perishable food items and leave them outside on Sept. 21 for pickup and delivery to Daily Bread locations.
The courier says it collected nearly 30,000 pounds of food in 2023 and hopes to top that figure this year.
Food insecurity is not a problem limited to Toronto. Earlier this month, Feed Ontario — a network of more than 1,200 food banks and hunger-relief organizations across the province — published data showing more than one million Ontarians visited a food bank in the last fiscal year.
"This represents a continued trend in the rise of food bank visits, marking an eight-year all-time high," Feed Ontario said in its report.