Guelph Politicast

It’s hard to think of any aid agency busier these days than the Guelph Food Bank these days, and to prove it, they went to city council last November during budget delegation night to ask for help. It might come as a surprise to learn that the Food Bank has never received any government funding, but it's proof that food insecurity is now outside their control, and it’s the reason for changes that they’ve started to undertake. According to Feed Ontario, over one million people accessed a food bank in Ontario between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, which is an increase of 25 per cent over the year before and an 86 per cent increase since 2019-2020, the last year before the pandemic. To put that in context, one out of every 16 people in Ontario have been to a food bank lately, and if you think Guelph has escaped this deluge you would be wrong. That’s why the Guelph Food Bank went to city council last fall. With 4,000 individuals using the Food Bank each month, which is more than double since before the pandem