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More Canadians face surging food costs

Xinhua, January 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada is known around the world as a wealthy country, so it may be a surprise that about eight percent of Canadians can't afford fresh, nutritious food and have to rely on food bank for living.

And that percentage could rise as food prices are set to increase substantially because the weak Canadian dollar is making imported produce more expensive.

At the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, manager Ariela Friedmann told Xinhua Thursday that the high cost of food was making it tougher for low-income Canadians to access and eat healthy foods.

"The high cost of produce is a huge concern, especially for our members. We know from a survey that over 50 percent of our members make under 1,200 CAD (840 U.S. dollars) a month to live on for a family. With that amount, you pay for your cost of living, utilities and medications, there is so little money left for necessities, one of which is food," Friedmann said.

Over the last year, food costs across the country have climbed by roughly 14.5 percent, putting increased pressure on families which are trying to make ends meet. Ultimately, that means there are more people seeking help from food bank.

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank is the largest food bank in British Columbia in west Canada. It was created in the early 1980s to provide food for low-income families during an economic recession.

It was supposed to be temporary, but a lack of food has become the new normal for many in Vancouver - a city with an extremely high cost of living.

"Currently we have 26,500 people every single week who turn to us for services and support. And we help people through 13 locations that we run, every single week in Greater Vancouver," Friedmann said.

She said the food is collected from donations of non-perishable items and then sent to outlets around the region. The food bank also relies on cash donations to buy fresh fruits, vegetables and eggs. They receive and distribute roughly 4.4 million pounds of food each year to the community.

Friedmann said she was seeing too many empty shelves around the warehouse, that was a sign that the number of people needing the food is on the rise, and the number of donations are falling. Endit