Iran war the latest crisis affecting food banks as usage in Toronto hits record high

Daily Bread Food Bank hosts spring sort as Doug Ford and Olivia Chow help stock 200+ programs for Easter weekend.

Toronto’s largest food bank says it’s been dealing with crisis after crisis as the war in Iran makes it even more expensive to feed the thousands of food insecure Torontonians who rely on it.

Neil Hetherington, CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank, says food bank visits have skyrocketed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but recent rising gas prices are adding fuel to the fire.

He says it costs 50 cents more per litre to fill up the trucks that deliver food to the more than 200 food banks and meal programs Daily Bread serves — all this at a time when food bank usage is higher than it’s ever been.

Daily Bread says there have been more than 920,000 visits to member food banks since the year started, surpassing the number of visits seen at this time last year.

Hetherington says just last month, a vessel carrying a shipment of rice for the Daily Bread Food Bank was struck near Iran, delaying the arrival of the much-needed food.

The food bank CEO says, despite the added pressure of the Iran war, the long-term solution for Ontario’s rising food bank usage is for governments to step up affordable housing efforts, noting that some of the food bank’s clients are spending 100 per cent of their income on housing.

Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press