CHAT 94.5 FM picks up donations for food drive (Photo by Ross Lavigne) 

By Hayley Ferguson

CHAT 94.5 Food Drive

Food Bank use among single people hits record high

Nov 13, 2019 | 5:43 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – The CHAT 94.5 FM annual Food Drive is once again underway.

Without any kind of government funding, the Medicine Hat and District Food Bank relies on community support.

“These are the most touching days we get. You know to just, our whole community support us and wrap their arms around us and show us that we’re doing good work,” said executive director Celina Symmonds.

Already on day one, the CHAT crew and volunteers have collected 206, 205 lbs of food.

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Which Symmonds says should last about 2 to 3 months.

The food drive coincides with the release of the “Hunger Count” report by Food Banks Canada.

While unemployment rates across the country have declined, the food banks says that a lack of adequate social safety nets has left many accessing more of their services.

At 48 per cent, the proportion of visits from people living alone has reached an all-time high across the country.

Many of those are seniors.

Over the last three years, food bank users over the age of 65 has increased by nearly 30 per cent.

Because those seniors are on their fixed pension, dealing with unexpected costs like healthcare needs and spikes in prices can make it more challenging.

In a similar situation, people with disabilities accessing their services is also on the rise.

Many of them rely on their provincial disability assistance as their main source of income.

Which the food bank says, isn’t keeping up with the cost of living.

Symmonds says that they are seeing more singles visit them, but that’s not the only raise they are seeing.

“Certainly we see our single folks who are unable to work. Those who have disabilities, folks with mental health issues,” she continued. “But we’re also seeing families like crazy this Christmas season. And unfortunately, we wish our numbers would keep going down, but unfortunately this year we’ve seen them come up.”

The food drive wraps up on Thursday.

Symmonds is hopeful that it will inspire more people in the community to make donations to the food bank this holiday season.

She says both food donations and cash are appreciated.

“Cash is really important for the food bank. The food bank has about three times buying power. Which means we can buy three times more than you. When we go to the grocery store cash helps,” Symmonds said. “But of course we always need those staple items like soups, Kraft Dinner, spaghetti sauce, pasta sauce, that kind of stuff. Just so families, have those basic needs met.”