National News posted Nov 15, 2016 @ 08:55am by Alex Soloducha

More Canadians turning to food banks

Food banks across Canada are even busier this year than last, according to a report released on Tuesday.

In March 2015, 852,137 people received food from a Canadian food bank, more than one third children.

This number is up 1.3 per cent from in 2014 and 26 per cent higher than in 2008, before the financial crisis.

Each month, 80,00 people in Canada visit a food bank for the first time.

British Columbia was one of the many provinces that saw a rise in food bank usage, with over 100,000 people visiting them in the month. The hardest hit was Alberta, with a 10 per cent increase in the past year thanks to dropping oil prices.

<who> Photo Credit: Food Banks Canada.

Across the country, over half of food banks said that more people came to them this year than last.

The Food Banks are calling on the federal government to better support families and individuals going through hard times by creating a basic income to replace social assistance, increasing affordable housing, enhancing employment and training and increasing access to traditional foods in the north.

The HungerCount report is a collection of results from more than 4,000 food banks and other food programs in every province and territory in Canada.

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