Ottawa Food Bank sees record number of visits in October, calls on city to declare a food insecurity crisis

The Ottawa Food Bank is appealing for help this Thanksgiving, with food donations down 30 per cent. Ottawa, On.. Oct. 6, 2023. (Tyler Fleming / CTV News).

The Ottawa Food Bank is seeing a record number of people turning to the agency for help, and it expects the numbers to continue to rise heading into the holiday season.

"In October, our network saw the highest number of visits we've ever seen in our 40-year history," Rachael Wlson, CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank, told CTV Morning Live, adding more than 50,000 people used the food bank in October.

CTV Morning Live and the Ottawa Food Bank kicked off the 2024 Holiday Helpers Food Drive on Monday, looking to raise food and money to support the food bank and its agencies through the holidays and into 2025.

"The need in Ottawa right now is incredibly high; it's at historic levels, unfortunately," Wilson said. "We're seeing more and more people needing to access the food bank than we ever have before."

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This week, the Ottawa Food Bank will release its 8^th annual Ottawa Hunger Report, which it says will "highlight the reality of food insecurity in our city."

Wilson says food insecurity has almost doubled in Ottawa this year, as families cope with the high cost of food and living.

"It was one in seven last year; it's now one-in-four households are experiencing food insecurity," Wilson said.

"We're seeing lots of people who unfortunately are employed who are needing to turn to a food bank. We all know how expensive it is to live in Ottawa, how expensive food is so that means that we are seeing many more people, families, seniors – it's people from every community right across the city."

Mississauga City Council and Food Banks Mississauga declared food insecurity an emergency last week. Wilson says the Ottawa Food Bank wants Ottawa City Council to declare food insecurity an emergency, but the city declined the request.

"We actually asked the City of Ottawa to declare an emergency or a crisis starting back in September and unfortunately, our city declined our request to do so," Wilson told Newstalk 580 CFRA's CFRA Live with Andrew Pinsent. "We would have really liked to see our city take that leadership role and be the first city to acknowledge the level of food insecurity we're seeing here in Ottawa."

The Ottawa Food Bank says declaring a food insecurity crisis would enable them to engage other levels of government, financial investment, and overall support that would improve the sector's capacity to support those in need.

If you can donate to the CTV Morning Live Holiday Helpers Food Drive, you can donate cash or some of the following most needed items:

• Baby cereal
• Pasta sauce
• Diapers
• Canned fish or chicken
• Dry legumes
• Peanut butter