Western Standard - EXCLUSIVE： Are people abusing Canadian food bank resources？

00:00:00.000 Hello, everyone. My name is Leah Muschett. I'm a reporter here at the Western Standard.

00:00:13.740 And today my guest is Hamason Benz-Knight. She is a manager of strategic relations,

00:00:20.060 relationships and partnerships at Edmonton Food Bank. And today she's going to join me since

00:00:25.740 it's the end of the year. I thought it'd be a good time to just go over because the Canadian Food

00:00:32.020 Bank has recently announced that in March 2025, there's been a rise in people using food banks

00:00:37.820 across Canada. So I'm going to ask Hamason if the Edmonton Food Bank has also experienced the same

00:00:44.920 thing. So welcome, Hamason. Thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it. Thank you for not having me.

00:00:50.240 This is an awesome opportunity for me to share about Edmonton's Food Bank. Oh, that's great. Okay.

00:00:54.960 Yeah. So I guess I, yeah, my first question would be, has Edmonton been experiencing the same rise in

00:01:01.480 2025? Unfortunately, we've been seeing a steady increase since 2020. So between 2020 and 2025,

00:01:10.040 our increase has gone up about 106% through the one program, our hamper programs. So right now we're

00:01:17.160 currently feeding more than 43,000 people monthly a food hamper. And that doesn't include the meals

00:01:23.300 and snack programs that we're supplying to those soup kitchens and shelters throughout Edmonton. So

00:01:28.480 it has been an ongoing challenge for us with this unprecedented need and for us to even rejig some

00:01:35.780 of our systems to make sure that we can keep up with demand. Okay. Yeah. Well, in that case as well,

00:01:43.380 what do you think is driving the rise in people having to use food banks? Do you think it's like

00:01:48.140 inflation, unemployment, or like multiple factors? It is definitely multiple factors. The cost of

00:01:55.880 living has increased. There is lack of jobs, especially use on employment is huge at this time.

00:02:03.540 And of course, there are always challenges in a person's household. There can be unexpected expenses

00:02:09.420 that creates those challenges. For example, we had a woman in her 80s reach out to us. She 0.79

00:02:16.280 unfortunately needs oxygen. So one of those portable tanks only lasts three to four hours. She relies 1.00

00:02:22.320 on DATS to take her anywhere. And of course she could not get around to access her food support.

00:02:29.020 And one of the shocking things is, is that she hadn't needed our services for 27 years. So right now

00:02:36.040 with the increase of affordability for a household or an individual, she has not been able to make ends

00:02:42.480 meet. And so she's had to reach out to us. We have identified her as a seriously vulnerable

00:02:48.180 individual. And so we have made arrangements for some home deliveries for her until she's able to 0.98

00:02:54.320 rearrange some of her finances. So it is a challenging time for individuals from seniors to individuals,

00:03:01.200 because we're seeing a lot more people sharing accommodations to try to make it through the month,

00:03:06.540 as well as household and families out there. So it is definitely impacting everyone. A lot of working

00:03:13.700 individuals are coming to see us as well.

00:03:17.260 Well, in that case as well, I would like to know, because I think I talked to Red Deer and they told

00:03:22.140 me that lots of their food bank people who come regularly are elderly people. So would you say

00:03:31.820 that's one of the highest like demographic wise of people coming to your food bank?

00:03:37.580 I wouldn't say it's the highest, I believe the highest are the single households, as well as those

00:03:45.020 individuals that are actually working, whether it's part time or even full time. But unfortunately,

00:03:50.620 the cost of living versus the pay is so disproportionate that they can't make it work.

00:03:57.100 So no matter what, we are seeing a lot of individuals and families coming to see us. So

00:04:05.260 unfortunately, I can't pinpoint a specific target group other than it's just hitting everyone,

00:04:11.260 unfortunately, at this time. So we're very fortunate that we have a lot of community support because of

00:04:16.380 course, we don't receive government funding from any level of government for our programs, core functions,

00:04:22.460 and services here in Edmonton. And we do rely 100% on the community to allow us to keep our doors open.

00:04:29.900 Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I okay, so also on your website, it says that 30, 37% of those using the

00:04:37.740 food bank resources are going to children. So would that mean, like, like you said, family, single households,

00:04:47.100 do you mean like one parent households? Like, yeah, it's a combination of single parents,

00:04:53.900 double parent households, as well as anybody, for example, our children numbers are anyone under 18.

00:05:00.460 So it could be a young person living on their own between 17 and 18. They're needing our help as well.

00:05:05.980 And that's where we've seen that shared accommodation, people are trying to stretch their

00:05:10.940 dollars by sharing accommodations, because that is, unfortunately, where majority of our clients

00:05:16.380 allocate funds. So right now, our clients have told us that over 50% of their income is going towards

00:05:23.260 keeping a roof over their head. And that is extremely important, especially here in Canada. And here in

00:05:29.260 Edmonton and Alberta, right, we have to make sure that we have those accommodations. So what happens when

00:05:35.820 rents go up, your money's not going as far as you want it to, the first area that's cut back is your

00:05:42.460 food budget, because that's considered discretionary when you need to keep that roof over your head.

00:05:48.540 Yeah. And I know there's been a recent report that prices are even going to go up even more in 2026 for

00:05:56.140 groceries and stuff. So yeah, that sounds very difficult. And I guess my next question would be,

00:06:02.220 I know you said it's hard to pinpoint because you might not exactly have the numbers. But also,

00:06:08.940 I'm wondering if you could tell me if there is also a lot of usage for students, because obviously,

00:06:15.900 they're having to pay tuition, cost of living, do you think those numbers are large as well for those

00:06:22.700 people? I don't think we gather that kind of data from the individuals that we see. We do know that

00:06:29.580 our local institutions, like the campus food banks, we will support as they need it. So some students

00:06:36.620 will be going directly to the campus food banks, others are still living at home, so it would be

00:06:41.100 captured under those households. So we don't necessarily target exactly students. But when you

00:06:45.820 think about it, anyone under 18, or 17 are still in school. So those would be that and that's close to 37%. So

00:06:54.220 that's a lot of young people in that bracket that are needing our support. So I can tell

00:06:59.100 you that that's a huge number, but we don't necessarily track the university area of students.

00:07:06.060 Okay. I also wanted to talk to you, do you guys do emergency hampers? Because I didn't see it on your

00:07:11.980 website, but I could have been missing that somewhere. Do you guys do that?

00:07:18.140 Actually, we used to call all of our hampers emergency hampers. But because of the changes,

00:07:25.180 the demographics, the needs here, and how much that need is, we're not a temporary solution any

00:07:31.500 longer. We're needed all the time for some of these households. So that's why we kind of remove

00:07:37.820 that emergency side of things for our hamper programs, because people are needing us regularly

00:07:43.180 to help bridge that gap monthly, some individuals. Our average is only about five times a year,

00:07:49.340 five or six. But there are some people that are really struggling. And that's where we're like,

00:07:53.900 it's not emergency. It's just keeping them going at this time. We do have kind of homeless packages,

00:08:01.340 like a homeless bag that would be handed out to an individual coming straight to us. We do have

00:08:06.380 some like bags with some key essentials. If somebody walks in like, right after 430,

00:08:13.420 and we can't do a full hamper, we need them to come back. So we do have those packages available,

00:08:18.700 I guess you could call those an emergency bag. But realistically, our emergency hampers,

00:08:24.060 they're just called our hampers at this point. And that those are key staples, as well as fresh

00:08:29.500 packaged, as well as frozen items in it that will help a household or an individual. And we're talking

00:08:35.980 each box about 15 kilos. So over 30 pounds of food each box that goes out.

00:08:42.860 Okay, okay. So in that case, I was talking to Calgary Food Bank, and they do like a certainly

00:08:48.620 it's like a pilot they said they introduced, I think, I don't know if it was a few months ago,

00:08:52.460 or like a year ago. But they're talking about how people need to like sign like registration to get

00:08:58.460 the food banks resources, say, I don't know if it's weekly or monthly, but you guys do something

00:09:04.780 similar? Or is it Yeah, because you said you have like the packages for people who are just coming

00:09:10.300 in, and they want something like right away. But also the daily or not daily monthly, no weekly,

00:09:17.820 right? I think it's, but yeah, you know, yes, so we have a custom program, a database. So everyone

00:09:25.740 that's come into us, we do an intake, and everyone in the household needs to have some kind of ID,

00:09:31.580 we don't do a full needs assessment, because it'd be physically impossible to do a needs assessment

00:09:37.260 with over 43,000 individuals monthly. So it's one of those balancing acts that we would rather error

00:09:44.300 on providing food, then not providing food here in Edmonton, because everyone, everyone's situation

00:09:52.460 is different. And we have to take a look at it. So even a T4 from a previous year will not tell you

00:09:59.740 what the current situation is in that household. So we do want to make sure that we support

00:10:04.700 individuals. And two years ago, we opened our pantry. So again, pantries are unique, where people

00:10:11.340 can do their own shopping at it. But again, pantry cannot do the volumes that a hamper program

00:10:18.220 where those packaged goods come in, and we make the hampers and send them back out. So the pantry

00:10:23.980 program is actually reserved for those individuals that we want to slow down those conversations.

00:10:29.340 So we would have somebody that's needing us every other week for multiple months, okay,

00:10:33.820 let's bring them in, have a conversation. So we slow down the that engagement. And then we're able to

00:10:41.340 find out more about that household. So if we need to redirect them to other programs that could support

00:10:46.220 them, whether it's housing, mental health, we have a program called Beyond Food that helps with job

00:10:51.900 readiness. Because realistically, food insecurity is a symptom of poverty. And we need to address poverty,

00:10:57.900 how do we do that? Getting people the skills and tools to help them find gainful employment will

00:11:04.540 help reduce the numbers coming to Edmonton's food bank.

00:11:07.180 Mm hmm. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, so this is another demographic question, unfortunately. So if

00:11:15.340 you don't have those numbers, that's all right. But I thought I might as well ask.

00:11:17.980 So I did ask you Oh, yeah, okay. So apparently, the Calgary Food Bank told me that they did support

00:11:25.900 lots of refugees coming from Ukraine, because like the government wasn't helping them with groceries

00:11:32.540 and stuff like money wise. So have you guys done anything like that for people just coming into

00:11:37.660 the country who are needing like food bank resources?

00:11:41.260 Of course, we've seen a lot of new Canadians, those refugees that have come in.

00:11:49.260 Many of them actually participate in our Beyond Food program where there's actually ELL programs and

00:11:55.580 like English as a Second Language and that kind of thing. And it's not necessarily just with us,

00:12:00.380 we work with other organizations like PALS, which is Project Adult Literacy,

00:12:04.700 and they help with that. So we're trying to help move them to a different point for them to access

00:12:11.740 gainful employment. So I recognize that sometimes it's not the easiest thing, though the individuals

00:12:17.660 are here now. So let's make sure that they have the tools and with it, which also includes food,

00:12:23.900 to make sure that they can contribute back as wonderful new Canadians with us to help us.

00:12:31.500 And even for us, we've received some of our staff are actually Ukrainian individuals that have come 0.88

00:12:38.460 over. One gentleman who drives our truck, he has a lot of experience, I think back in the Ukraine,

00:12:45.820 he flew jets. So it's, and of course, he could not participate in the war. So it's a whole bunch of

00:12:51.820 dynamics that are happening right now. But again, the whole point is for us to feed people.

00:12:57.820 Politics aside, we're here to support anyone that's here. So that's how we function here in Edmonton.

00:13:05.260 Okay, that makes sense. I also maybe want to know about them, like the people who are,

00:13:10.380 who just came here, say they even have a job, but like, it's not paying that much. So,

00:13:15.900 so you're helping them gain employment. But what about like the ones that, is there a lot of people who

00:13:21.020 have employment, but it's still not letting them afford everything they need for, you know,

00:13:27.660 a good life on the journey support? Yeah, sorry. Yes, that's very, very good. There is a lot of

00:13:33.900 underemployment. So they're not working full time, they can't get the full time hours, they don't have

00:13:39.500 the benefits. So there's a whole bunch of those underemployed individuals. So they're trying to work

00:13:46.860 full time, minimum wage isn't covering all the bills. And so that's where we're supporting those, 0.86

00:13:54.380 and be trying to be as helpful as we can. Okay, cool. Yeah. I think my last question would be this.

00:14:02.300 There is lots of like, people online that say that international students sometimes abuse food bank

00:14:09.020 resources. Have you guys noticed this to be the case at all? Um, no, I haven't. Um, that doesn't

00:14:18.860 mean that there isn't abuse out there. When you think about if you have a table of free t-shirts,

00:14:24.060 and you say only take one, there will be a couple people out there that don't care about that sign,

00:14:30.300 and that will grab multiples. Again, that's their own karma that they have to live with down in the future.

00:14:36.540 And there's also sometimes the language barrier. Some places don't even know have food banks,

00:14:41.260 they don't even know what that means. And so the pantry has actually allowed us to actually remove

00:14:47.180 people from the food programs, because they're like, Oh, this is what it's for. So again, we have

00:14:52.860 to have those, take that moment, and step back and just have those honest conversations to make sure

00:15:00.780 people really understand what a food bank is about. Okay, that makes sense. Well, in that case,

00:15:07.500 thank you very much, Thomas. And that was all my questions. So thanks again for joining us. We

00:15:11.420 really appreciate it. Um, yeah, and if you guys liked this video, um, you should definitely subscribe

00:15:18.540 to our YouTube channel. It's Western Standard. And you can also subscribe to our actual news channel,

00:15:24.940 which is westernstandard.news, $10 a month and $100 a year. And yeah, that's all I have to say.

00:15:31.180 So thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. And goodbye.

Western Standard - December 11, 2025

EXCLUSIVE： Are people abusing Canadian food bank resources？

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