The North Bay Food Bank is taking a “wait and see” approach about the concern relating to the rising food prices and our low Canadian dollar.
A number of food banks across the country have stated their concerns about the problem; some concerned to the point of believing the rising food prices could create a crisis at food banks.
"The difficult thing for any food bank is trying to prepare for the year ahead and what might happen in a situation like that," said Michael Maidment, executive director of the Ottawa Food Bank to the Canadian Press.
While each agency has unique situation, many say higher prices during the peak winter period are limiting how much food they can purchase and having an impact on donations while also spurring a greater demand for their services.
Amber Livingstone, Manager of the North Bay Food Bank, believes the higher cost of food will impact the amount of canned foods they receive.
“People have to spend a little more at the grocery store,” said Livingstone.
“That being said, for the people referred to as the ‘working poor’ they are really going to feel it, so we may see more clients because they are struggling to get through the month and buy food with what little money they are bringing in at home.”
Livingstone admits their hampers are not as big as they would like them to be.
“We have made some changes, our hampers may not be as full right now, but it’s helping from all the donations that came in December stretch just a little bit further which is kind of a nice thing this time of year because usually we are back to purchasing quite heavily,” she said.
“So we’ve been able to make stuff stretch just by how we are giving stuff out, it’s not as fun giving out hampers that don’t have as much in them but that’s the reality.”
Livingstone says they are looking at ways to cut costs due to the situation and one way to save, may ironically be by buying fresh produce.
“We did our research and for us to buy apples and portion them out, it’s going to cost us less money, which is crazy to hear in these times when we are all talking about how expensive everything is but right now we are paying $2.17 for a can of fruit and we can bring that cost per person down to $0.83 or less by purchasing apples,” she said.
“We are working with someone in town to get decent apples and decent prices but it’s hard. We are all feeling the squeeze at home, we all go grocery shopping. You are going in for lettuce, plain old lettuce is like $2.99 and what do you do?”
