Affordability crisis: Demand at Toronto food bank surge hitting a vital part of the organizations

The affordability crisis that sent demand at food banks to record levels this year is also hitting a vital part of these organizations’ operations — the donations.

 

With 2025 showing no signs of relief, some charities have had to reduce how much food they can provide to those who need it the most.

 

In Toronto, Daily Bread Food Bank saw hundreds of individuals this year who were previously giving $20 a month reduce that donation by about half because it’s all they can give.

 

“You overlay the (overall) donations alongside the growth in food bank usage and those two graphs don’t match,” said Neil Hetherington, Daily Bread’s CEO, adding the organization received about $675,000 less this year, partly due to the Canada Post strike.

 

Having served 3.75 million visits this year and forecasting an increase to roughly 4.25 million client visits in the new year, Daily Bread recently had to scale back. Before November, clients received three days’ worth of food once per week. But now it’s giving out 2.7 days’ worth, Hetherington said.

 

To put that into perspective, Hetherington said, it took the organization 38 years to get to one million client visits a year before that figure more than tripled in the last couple years alone.

 

In order to meet that growing demand, Daily Bread reported it’s now spending around $29 million annually to buy food, compared to $1.5 million before the pandemic.

 

North York Harvest Food Bank also relies disproportionately on individual donations to keep running. One donor recently sent in $10 with a note saying, “This is all I can afford right now.”

Meanwhile, corporate donations the past year have become “much, much harder to come by. It’s sort of fallen off a cliff,” said Ryan Noble, executive director at North York Harvest Food Bank.

 

“We are very fortunate to have the donors and volunteers that we do, but we are all being stretched into impossible situations having to deal with increased demand, higher costs of food and operations, and disruptions to donations,” Noble said. “It’s a triple whammy.”

 

According to a recent report by Feed Ontario, almost 40 per cent of food banks have reduced the amount of food they provide and across the province donations are declining as more individuals can no longer afford to give.

 

While final numbers for December aren’t in yet for North York Harvest, as of last week it was $800,000 below its donations target for the year, Noble said. That doesn’t include donations that are coming in over the holidays or have been delayed by the postal strike.

 

While those contributions could close the gap, if it doesn’t the organization will have to scale back some operations for 2025. Noble said food portions likely won’t be affected yet, but some plans such as hiring more warehouse staff and supporting community programs will at least be put on pause.

 

Hetherington also said they worry they might have to cut back even more next year at this rate, but there’s some reassurance they can avoid that.

 

Beginning in September, Hetherington added, the number of new clients at Daily Bread started to decrease: Where they would previously see 12,000 to 14,000 new people every month who have never used a food bank coming to their network for the first time, that number has dipped below 10,000 new people a month.

 

It’s still an “abysmal” number because it’s on top of “already-unsustainable levels,” but Hetherington said at this point they’re looking for any sign of hope.

 

Maria Speare, executive director at NeighbourLink North York which runs a local independent food bank in Willowdale, said they’ve been down 130 donors compared to last year, leaving them with a few dozen regular donors a month. Their food hub’s bank account hit $0 at one point this year and twice last year.

 

“We’re the little guys,” Speare said. “I’m thankful to our community for keeping us afloat, but many small organizations are consistently on the brink of collapse.”

 

She added that the existing demand in Willowdale alone, one of Toronto’s more affluent wards, meant NeighbourLink needed to take over a second food hub that opened this month. Its among few in Toronto that distributes fresh food like produce and dairy, but it solely depends on fundraised donations, which they are “constantly” seeking. Demand has jumped from serving 25 households when they first opened to 340 today.

 

“We’ve already had to make reductions to the amount of milk people receive,” Speare said. “We do serve halal and kosher, but the amounts may change, especially as the price of dietary restrictive food is increasing.”

Mustafa Koc, a sociology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who researches food security and policy, gave the federal and provincial governments a “failing grade or just barely a pass” in its policies and long-term solutions in recent years, such as offering more affordable housing, since food banks at the best of times are limited because they were always meant to be a short-term relief.

 

“We should start thinking about a national food security policy … because the future is not looking bright,” Koc said, pointing to the incoming Trump administration threatening Canada’s economy with large tariffs.

 

One state south of the border took notice of Toronto’s situation in July, with a group of Mormons based in Utah offering Daily Bread some relief with a $2-million donation. It funded two delivery trucks to add to their fleet of seven — which Hetherington said was struggling to make deliveries on time both because of growing demand and Toronto’s “obscene” traffic.

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used money from their international relief fund, Hetherington continued, when they learned one in 10 Torontonians now use food banks across the city.

 

Toronto isn’t usually synonymous with international relief, said Koc, noting there are places “far worse off” such as Gaza, Yemen and Sudan. So, “it’s a sign of desperation here,” he added.

 

“We’re getting tired of saying it perhaps as much as (media) is getting tired of reporting on it: We don’t see the story changing,” Noble said. “Until we see real policy change from the powers that be.”

 

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star