Title:HungerCount 2010: a comprehensive report on hunger and food bank use in Canada, and recommendations for change.
Corporate Author: Food Banks Canada
Subject:Food security – hunger, health|split|Food security – statistics, studies
Publisher:Food Banks Canada
Place of Publication:Toronto
Date of Publication:2010
Abstract:
Over the last two years, food bank use in Canada has risen by 28% – an unprecedented rate of growth. After four consecutive years of decline, demand for food banks has skyrocketed since the 2008-09 recession. This year, every province experienced an increase in the number of individuals requiring help, and nearly three-quarters of all Canadian food banks helped more people than in 2009. HungerCount shows that the effects of the recession are still being felt across the country. In March of this year, 80,150 people accessed a food bank for the first time – approximately the same level as twelve months earlier. March is a typical month for food bank usage, which means that more than 80,000 people walk through the door of a food bank for the first time every single month. The need for food assistance increased almost across the spectrum this year: food banks saw more adults, children, and youth; more families with children and more single people; more women and men; more Aboriginal people; more seniors; more people with disabilities. The picture of those who access food banks has remained remarkably consistent over the years, and 2010 is no different: 38% are children or youth under age 18; 51% of assisted households are families with children, and nearly half of these are two-parent families. A large percentage of those needing support (40%) are single-person households, many of them counting social assistance as their primary source of income. Though fewer people with jobs accessed food banks this year, households with income from current or recent employment are, at 17% of the total, still a significant proportion of those helped.
Language:English
 Material Type:Report
F. SOCIAL ISSUES/F.15 HUNGER/2010 HungerCount2010.pdf