We’ve all seen the prices rise. The cost of groceries, rent, and inflation is causing food insecurity to affect more Ontarians than ever. Ontario food banks were visited 7.6 million times in the last year. This is a 134 per cent increase from 2019-2020, as reported by Feed Ontario on Sept. 10, 2024. In the same report, it is shown that food banks are feeling this pressure, with 69 per cent of Ontario food banks feeling concerned about not having enough food to support those in need, and 53 per cent worry about having enough funding to meet the demand in their areas adequately. Food insecurity is at an all-time high and this issue is creeping closer and closer to home. 

“Food insecurity doesn’t discriminate,” said Mujtaba Haider, a coordinator of the WUSA Food Support Service (FSS). “26 per cent of post-secondary students are affected by food insecurity.” The FSS provides free food hampers to members of the UW community who are struggling to get adequate meals. Five types of hampers are offered: meat, vegetarian, kosher, halal, and basic hygiene products. To combat food insecurity, the FSS gave out over 1,600 hampers to UW students in need in 2023, with the ongoing support of WUSA and the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. 

“Right now, the government is expecting food banks to solve the problem, but food banks can’t solve the problems,” said Kim Wilhelm, CEO of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. “We’re fortunate at the Food Bank of Waterloo Region to have a number of refrigerated trucks and walk-in coolers, refrigerators, and freezers to store our perishable products, but at the same time, we’re feeling stretched in the space that we have.”

Wilhelm emphasized that food banks were initially created for emergencies, however, now they’re forced to be more than that due to the rising number of people who need food. “There are food banks that are promoting health and financial well-being and I think that as leaders, as a community, it’s time to recognize that food alone won’t solve the problem,” Wilhelm said. “It’s time to shift our focus from an emergency response towards empowerment and from short-term transactions of food to the long-term transformation of individuals who are experiencing poverty.”

While food banks are happy and willing to take any adequate donations, the root of food insecurity falls into the hands of policymakers. “The reality is that addressing food insecurity requires a multifaceted approach that targets both the immediate needs and the underlying cause, poverty being the primary factor,” Wilhelm said. “Ontario Works often does not meet the basic living costs. It hasn’t been modernized in years, and so if we’re able to increase these rates and index them to inflation, it can significantly help reduce food insecurity.”

Increasing the minimum wage and working to combat the growing cost of living through affordable housing are also methods Haider and Wilhelm emphasized to increase food security. “It’s living in this post-pandemic world where job markets and economies are very unstable and fluctuate at extreme ends, so there are many factors that are causing this increasing year-over-year demand,” Haider said. “Also, we are a university service, run for students by students so that in itself causes some inherent limitations that come up.”

The FSS is thankful to be supported by WUSA and the Food Bank of Waterloo Region, however, they wish to become more self-sufficient and not so heavily reliant on external funding and donations. “We work in coordination with the Region of Waterloo Food Bank however, we are trying to be more self-sustainable,” said Haider. “Getting those donations is something that has always been a challenge for us.”

While the FSS is feeling the strains of this high demand, they’re looking forward to the Stock the Bank Food Drive event in November, where UW departments compete to see who can gather the most food to be donated. “They collect donations with their units and then they bring them down to us. We count them up and the people in the department and the group with the most donations win a prize,” Haider said. “This is something that we do historically and every fall semester closer to exam season… That’s usually when folks end up running into financial troubles — that later half of the semester.”

If you would like to donate to the FSS or the Food Bank of Waterloo Region, the items that are highest in demand are fruits, vegetables, canned beans, canned meat, and tomato sauce. “If people have room left in their budget after completing their grocery shopping, please consider picking up one of those [high demand] items and placing it on the bin on your way out of the store,” Wilhelm said. However, both food banks emphasized that any donation, big or small, makes a huge difference. “We really want to make sure that we’re still able to provide enough food to get all those food groups for people,” said Sam Galloway, a FSS coordinator. “We will take everything you’re willing to donate.”

Financial contributions are also greatly appreciated. “Alternatively, we ask people that if you have room in your budget to consider making a financial contribution. Financial contributions allow us to fill the gaps in our inventory, keep our trucks on the road and ensure that the food is delivered safely to our agencies.”

The Food Bank of Waterloo Region utilizes these donations to power their mobile pantry. This food truck-like delivery service delivers food hampers to those who can’t go and access a community centre. “On our mobile pantry we have refrigerators, freezers, and then shelving for dry storage,” Wilhelm said. “We literally go into a parking lot and ensure that people have access to fresh, nutritious food right off of our mobile pantry.”

Volunteering is another way to play a role in decreasing food insecurity. Not only does this give you valuable volunteer experience, but it allows you to give back to your community and help those in need, which is extremely rewarding. “It gives purpose to waking up in the morning — supporting students that really need this help in such unfortunate circumstances,” Haider said. “We just would love to see the student body and faculty and staff more engaged with our service.”

There are a variety of roles that the FSS offers that don’t just involve gathering donations. Volunteer positions range from office executives, communications and marketing positions, to analytics positions. Analytics volunteers look at the FSS surveys for trends in who and where needs food hampers the most. If you’re interested in more spaced-out volunteer hours or even more hands-on work, the Food Bank of Waterloo Region is also looking for volunteers for fundraisers and events. “[Individuals] could certainly consider volunteering at our distribution centre or at one of our fundraising events,” Wilhelm said. “Because of these contributions, as well as donations and food, we are able to provide the support that those individuals need so that they don’t go hungry.”

If you’re interested in fighting food insecurity in your community, check out thefoodbank.ca or the WUSA Food Support Service at wusa.ca. For in-person food donations to the FSS, donation bins are placed in the following buildings year-round:

• Student Life Centre Flock Stop Stairs (SLC) 
• South Campus Hall (SCH) 
• Renison University College 
• Claudette Millar Hall (CMH) 
• William M. Tatham Centre (TC) 
• IST (EC2) 
• Monetary donations can also be made on the wusa.ca FSS Donations webpage

As a community, we can donate food to those in need, volunteer our time when possible, and urge our officials to prioritize food security in their policies so more hungry stomachs can be filled with healthy food. “What you can donate is going to go directly into the hands of other students,”  Galloway said. “[It] mean[s] a lot to us — it’s students helping students.”