The London Food Bank is seeing a rise in how many people access their services as food banks across the country have had large increases in the past year.
(Workers at London Food Bank, Naomi Ljunggren)
Food Banks Canada has released their 2025 HungerCount that shows nearly 2.2 million people visit food banks in a single month, with over one-third of them being children. This need for food is being felt on a local scale in London.
“The seniors population has gone up, obviously the kids’ population, everybody goes up,” said Jane Roy, Co-Director of the London Food Bank.
They are helping about “5700-5800 families a month” and “over 17,000 individuals,” says Roy, showing a “nine per cent increase” locally since only March of this year.
The HungerCount also shows that 19 per cent of clients report employment as their main source of income, and 40 per cent are on social assistance or disability-related supports.
Roy believes that common misconceptions about why people access food banks do not hold truth in the context of how “difficult” it is “for people to make ends meet.”
“More and more people continue to come due to cost of living; food continues to go up, housing [and rent] prices continue to go up,” said Roy.
Despite challenges faced through rising demands, Roy assures that the London Food Bank is “doing great” and are able to meet the needs of their thousands of clients. She says this is done through means of not only individual donations, but donations from grocery stores, farmers, and schools.
(Food processing area at London Food Bank, Naomi Ljunggren)
“It’s just been phenomenal, so that’s the yin-yang right, the difficulty is obviously the people coming to us are really really struggling but London’s been great to support them,” said Roy.
Donations of all kinds of food are encouraged by the London Food Bank, as well as lending a helping hand to a neighbour that needs it.
