Thanksgiving food drive sees 30 per cent spike in demand over last year

London Foodbank in London, Ont. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)

London Food Bank co-director Jane Roy says a 30 per cent increase in people asking for help at the food bank this Thanksgiving is due in part to the rapid rise of inflation, including the hike in grocery bills.

“Everyone is feeling the pinch,” said Roy. “We’re all going to the grocery store and seeing grocery bills go up, in terms of inflation, so we really didn’t know how people would respond. We even said ‘if you can’t it’s okay. We know how difficult it is.’”

The good news, however, is that this year’s food drive saw a major increase in donations over 2021- about 43 per cent.

The 2022 Thanksgiving food drive netted 71,467 pounds of food, and $89, 806.62 in financial donations. When combined, that amounts to a total equivalent to 99,444 pounds of food.

By comparison, last year’s thanksgiving food drive grossed the equivalent of 69,625 pounds of food.

“Today is Thanksgiving day, it’s been amazing, it’s been overwhelming in terms of how much the public has given in terms of food and money,” said Roy. “We haven’t seen the warehouse this full since Christmastime.”

The food was collected over the first 10 days of October from donations to fireballs and grocery stores, and to the food bank itself. The drive also included online monetary donations. Roy said donors had gotten used to donating money instead of food over the pandemic, and this year has seen combination of both.

“We call it the Thanksgiving food drive, but it’s not so much to provide a Thanksgiving meal. What it is- is to provide the daily sustenance between now and Christmas. So what we have to do now is go through this, we’ve got to sort it all out. Sixty per cent of this actually goes to other agencies, and 40 per cent stays here at the food bank. So it’s going to go all across London to basically help everyone it needs to help.”

The food bank helps feed 11,000 people per month.

“That’s over four thousand families a month, and we’ve never been that busy, it’s crazy,” said Roy.