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FOOD BANK/‘Some families are carrying two and three jobs to be able to meet the necessities’
two parents, two incomes,
NO FOOD Marilyn Herrmann, Surrey Food Bank executive director. SURREY — Two-parMarisa ent families are usually BABIC thought of as being finan- Staff Reporter cially more stable than single parents struggling to feed their kids. But a growing number of these families are turning to the food bank for help. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of two-parent families that are needing the food bank,” Surrey Food Bank executive director Marilyn Herrmann said Wednesday. Herrmann, also a member of the Food Banks British Columbia board of directors, says a similar trend is emerging provincially. She blames low wages for the rising number of food bank users. Food Banks Canada released a report this week showing that Canadians were turning to food banks in record numbers in March of this year. Called HungerCount 2010, the report found that food bank usage was almost 10 per cent higher than the previous March. Food bank officials attribute the sharp rise to the lingering effects of the 2008 economic recession. The report says nearly one in ten of the individuals helped were first-time food bank users. According to the report, food banks helped 867,948 individuals during March, an increase of 72,000 or 9.2 per
❚PHOTO/Ted Colley
cent from 2009 and 28 per cent higher than in 2008. Locally, Herrmann reports similar figures. The Surrey Food Bank helped 17,084 individuals with hampers in March, up from 15,162 in March of 2009. Herrmann says the number of people on benefits is also rising as more people are having a harder time in finding jobs. “The number of people on EI and social assistance has also risen,” she said. She said many people who find work are stuck in low-paying jobs or struggle on part-time hours. “Some families are carrying two and three jobs to be able to meet the necessities,” she said. Provincially, about 94,000 people used food banks in March. With Christmas approaching, Herrmann is hoping donations to the food bank will keep pace with the growing demand for assistance. She noted that cash donations allow her to stretch a dollar by shopping wholesale and buying in bulk. “We encourage people to think about cash donations,” she said. “It’s so easy to go online to our website (www.surreyfoodbank.org) and donate online.” mbabic@thenownewspaper.com
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