Ottawa Food Bank: organizations will receive 20 to 50% less food

He announced the decision in November, he is implementing it now: the food distributor for the 98 food banks and other organizations in Ottawa is obliged to cut supplies by 20 to 50% compared to this which is usually given.

According to the organization, the number of people applying for food assistance increased by 90% compared to 2019 in Ottawa.

It’s really sad to see that there are so many people who need help.

Food banks and other beneficiary agencies of the Bank of Ottawa have more than 556,000 visits annually. A number described ashistorical by the Executive Director of the Ottawa Food Bank, Rachael Wilson. So much so that the organization is calling for food insecurity to be recognized as a crisis in Ottawa.

Difficult choices

According to the latest survey conducted by the Ottawa Food Bank, 40% of beneficiary organizations say they refuse to serve people on a weekly basis due to excessive demand.

We will therefore have to expect less food for all the people who visit Ottawa’s food banks, warns Ms. Wilson.

Organizations will be faced with difficult choices, as will the Bank. Rachael Wilson says her organization will prioritize neighborhood food banks, based on their needs and the number of people who visit each agency.

It’s difficult for us, for food banksshe said. And it’s really difficult for individuals, families, children…

Across the river, What we notice here in Outaouais is the shortness of our bodies.explains the director of community development and philanthropic relations at Moisson Outaouais, Marie-Pier Chaput.

As in Ottawa, the organization will have to review its eligibility criteria or space out its distributions, which results in to further weaken vulnerable customers.

1.4% public funding

The Ottawa Food Bank says its financial difficulties are not due to a lack of private donations, which represent 98.6% of its funding.

The organization receives 1.4% of its funding from the City of Ottawa and nothing from the province. Here in Ontario, we see what happens when we don’t support the programsdenounces Rachel Wilson, who is asking for more public funding to fully fulfill her mission.

Even though the generosity of Canadians is incrediblejudges associate professor of accounting at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, Leanne Keddie, it is not enough to compensate for the growing needs.

We are very dependent on the generosity of the publicalso notes Marie-Pier Chaput, from Moisson Outaouais. The latter receive 17% of their funding in government subsidies.

Donations are more difficult to collect, but also less and less and in abundance.

Without additional public assistance, unfortunately we will still have to depend on the generosity of citizens in the coming yearsshe worries.

Get to the root of the problem

For sustainable accounting expert Leanne Keddie, we need to get to the root of the problem.

If funding food banks would, according to her, make it possible to solve the problem of hunger et to ensure that people can eat every dayfood insecurity is, at its core, a problem of poverty.

Maybe it’s time to think about solutions like a universal basic income or holding organizations accountable for their food wasteshe thinks.

The professor cites a report published in 2024 by the organization Second Harvest, which indicates that almost half of the food in Canada is wasted or thrown away. Canadians pay indirectly for this waste, she explains.

We must ask ourselves, how did we get here? How can we reduce inequities and help people regain their food independence?she concludes.

With information from Anne-Charlotte Carignan