Skipping the occasional meal has become the norm for Tara Andrews, who says soaring grocery prices have made it too hard to adequately feed herself and her two teens.
Even with help from food donations and her retired parents, the 49-year-old single mom says the skyrocketing cost of living is more than she can handle on her monthly income of $1,200. She’s already one month in arrears for May’s rent and expects the same for June.
“My grocery bill has almost doubled and I get maybe half of what I used to be able to get. It’s a direct relationship that the more expensive things get, the less I can afford to buy,” Andrews says from her home in Coquitlam, B.C.
It’s a familiar story for various agencies dedicated to addressing food insecurity, with the head of Food Banks Canada saying many families with children are especially precarious as school-based food programs wind down.
It’s a familiar story for various agencies dedicated to addressing food insecurity, with the head of Food Banks Canada saying many families with children are especially precarious as school-based food programs wind down.
Kirstin Beardsley says about a third of people who rely on Canadian food banks are children – as many as up to 400,000 each month. The agency says food bank use is rising among single-parent families.
“These are kids who are not getting a chance to thrive. And that has long-term impact on the country,” says Beardsley.
“You can’t lose sight of the fact that kids don’t get another childhood, they can’t do this over. This is their one chance and you need to make sure that we’re giving everyone the opportunity they need to build the life that they want.”
This summer, Food Banks Canada hopes to bump up the summer food packs it offers kids to 175,000 – up 25,000 from last year and many times over the 700 inaugural packs of 2015.
In Toronto, the head of the Daily Bread Food Bank also says requests for aid have spiked as inflation reached a nearly four-decade high.
Neil Hetherington says his agency is seeing roughly 160,000 client visits per month – up from about 120,000 per month in January. He says modelling the organization has done with CIBC predicts that to rise to 200,000 client visits per month in December.
He says counterparts across the country tell him of similar spikes, with many reporting a 20 to 30 per cent jump in demand.
While many of these visitors have been on the margins for years, Hetherington says he’s also seeing new faces who otherwise have never turned to food charities, pegging the surge to a confluence of soaring food prices, gas prices, housing costs and ongoing labour uncertainty in some sectors.
“We are seeing individuals who are working but their paycheque is not keeping pace with the cost of being able to drive to their place of employment, or be able to feed their children. They are increasingly worried about what they are seeing and (about) being able to put food on the table,” says Hetherington.
Back in British Columbia, Andrews says things would be much worse for her without the subsidy for her three-bedroom apartment, which brings rent down to $540 per month.
But she says pre-existing financial woes deepened during the pandemic and have only gotten worse in 2022 as inflation also drove up the cost of gas and utilities.
She’s also saddled with $150,000 in school loans but can only cover the interest.
“I’m luckier than some because I live in housing so it’s subsidized but still you’ve got all the bills that go with it to keep the house running. Then there’s the food on top of it,” she says.
“I’m making enough to cover my bills and really not to afford food. That’s really what it comes down to.”
Among the organizations Andrews relies on is the North Vancouver-based Backpack Buddies, which supplies weekend meals to kids who need help getting fed between the time school ends Friday afternoon and resumes Monday morning.
The program expanded to summer months during the pandemic and will grow even more this summer, says co-executive director Emily-anne King.
“We kind of were hoping that the beginning of COVID in March of 2020 and those following six months would be the height of demand for services like ours but we are seeing more demand today than we ever have,” says King.
She says they’ve recently added 500 more recipients in communities including lower Similkameen, Saltspring Island, and the village of Lytton, devastated by last year’s wildfire. They expect to help about 2,100 kids a week this summer.
Demand surges as the annual inflation rate rises faster than it has since 1983, with Statistics Canada announcing Wednesday that the consumer price index in May was up 7.7 per cent compared to a year ago.
That has many bracing for more interest rate hikes to control inflation. The Bank of Canada already raised its key target three times this year.
Statistics Canada said in May the price of groceries rose nearly 10 per cent from the previous year, matching the April jump. The cost of fresh vegetables rose 10 per cent, while the largest increase on record involved edible fats and oils at 30 per cent.
As prices continue to rise, food policy expert Valerie Tarasuk of the University of Toronto says things will only get worse for 5.8 million Canadians believed to be food insecure, among them about 1.4 million children.
While that pool may grow larger this year, she’s most concerned about already suffering Canadians who will sink further unless income support programs increase in tandem with rising costs.
“Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. And I think with each one of these reports, I hope that our political leaders are feeling more and more pressure to rethink what they’re doing at the bottom end,” says Tarasuk.
“We don’t need little one-off cheques. They’re not going to be enough to make this go away. We need policies that are actually enduring and that means things like indexation.”
The Bank of Canada has said it’s prepared to “act more forcefully” to reel in inflation, leading some economists to suspect rates could increase by three-quarters of a percentage point next month, matching the U.S. Federal Reserve move last week.
For Canadians who are already overextended, Hetherington says a one or two per cent increase on monthly mortgage or loan repayments could be significant.
“I see on a daily basis children excited to be at the food bank, shopping for the food that they need,” says Hetherington.
“They’re thrilled to be with their parents shopping at a food bank and it breaks your heart. It is absolutely wrong that that is happening in our country.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2022.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his first shutout of the season and 32nd overall, helping the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Monday night.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala also scored. The Kings have won two of their last three.
Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators. They are 1-2-1 in their last four.
Kopitar opened the scoring with 6:36 remaining in the opening period. Saros denied the Kings captain’s first shot, but Kopitar collected the rebound below the goal line and banked it off the netminder’s skate.
Fiala, a former Predator, made it 2-0 35 seconds into the third.
The Kings held Nashville to just three third-period shots on goal, the first coming with 3:55 remaining and Saros pulled for an extra attacker.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
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DEVILS 3 OILERS 0
EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his NHL career, helping the New Jersey Devils close their western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored. The Devils improved to 8-5-2. They have won three of their last four after a four-game skid.
Calvin Pickard made 13 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers had won two straight.
