Food banks on Vancouver Island have seen an increase in families looking for help to keep food on the table over the past year.
According to one food bank, working families are struggling to make ends meet due to record-high inflation and gas prices.
The Mustard Seed in Victoria says many families that live paycheque to paycheque will feel the squeeze of the holiday season and could soon need a little extra help.
"Our expectations are that demand will keep growing, that there is no magic fix to all the pressures that folks are feeling these days," said Treska Watson, director of operations for the Mustard Seed on Tuesday.
"We are preparing the way we do every year. We’re putting callouts to volunteers and for donations, as well as financial donations, and just really trying to brace ourselves as best we can as what we see is an increasing need right through the holidays," she told CTV News.
Nanaimo's Loaves and Fishes food bank was visited 6,786 times in September by 3,021 people needing a little extra help so they wouldn't have to go hungry.
The organization's executive director said the number of people needing help could reach over 5,000 by the holiday season.
"Every dollar that someone saves by accessing the food from the food bank they’re able to put into the other necessities that they need," said Peter Sinclair, executive director of Loaves and Fishes Community Food Bank.
"We’re committed to making sure we get as much food into peoples' hands as we can because they’ve got other needs," he said. "They can spend their money to make sure they can thrive."
The Mustard Seed says it's seeing an unprecedented number of first-time users, as financial pressures on many households stack up.
"Having to make decisions between paying your rent and paying your hydro bill and buying you groceries, of courses you’re going to want to pay that rent and hydro first," said Watson.
"Folks are just finding more and more they are needing that extra help with food," she said.
Both food banks say they are currently able to keep up with demand for the most part, with Loaves and Fishes citing the Perishable Food Recovery Program as an instrumental part in meeting that demand.
The program recovers food that is estimated to cost retailers in British Columbia more than $6-million in waste. It is then distributed though food banks to those in need.
"There’s lots of food out there," said Sinclair.
"You just have to have the infrastructure and the systems in place to access it," he said.
Ahead of the holiday season both food banks are putting out the call for donations and volunteers.
The groups add that a key goal of food banks is to reduce the stigma of needing help.
