The Flamborough Food Bank has seen an unprecedented uptick in usage over the past several months — particularly over the summer.

Flamborough Food Bank managing director Jim Leamen said over the months of June, July and August, the organization added 28 client families.

“That brought our totals up to 170 families overall,” he said, adding each family generally has an average of three people. “This time last year we were probably around 130 families.”

Leamen said the increase over the year of 40 families is one thing, but the 28 over the summer was very sudden.

In speaking with clients, Leamen said there are a number of issues that are leading people to access the food bank.

For example, one cohort of clients are those who are around 60 years of age.

“You’re 60 years old, you’ve worked, didn’t make a whole lot, didn’t save a whole lot and all of a sudden you lose your job,” he said. “You can take early CPP, but that’s not going to cover the bills."

“They go from working and getting by and then they’re thrust into poverty all of a sudden — it’s so sad.”

Leamen said he is worried the food bank will see more and more people in that situation as the population ages.

In addition, Leamen said there are some clients who work in Waterdown — but the majority of the jobs in the community are part-time or minimum wage full-time jobs.

“The problem for them is they’re having a hard time keeping up with rental costs,” he said. “For those people, they’re paying some of those bills, but they can’t pay them all.

“They have to sacrifice somewhere, so they’ll sacrifice the food budget because they know we can help them.”

Leamen said there have also been clients who have been a two-income family that bought a house in Waterdown — but one parent suddenly lost their job.

“They literally go from being fine to almost into poverty overnight,” he said. “All of a sudden they’re faced with a huge mortgage, a huge property tax bill and not the ability to pay for it.”

He said there are also a number of clients who are led to the food bank’s services due to growing social issues, such as addiction or abuse.

While those who are forced to access the food bank due to social issues would have always been part of the equation, Leamen said the new categories — such as seniors, low-wage workers or sudden job losses — have helped lead to the increase.

He added the food bank was surprised to see the summer increase.

“We were expecting it to be quiet, to be honest,” he said of the summer months. “It just exploded.

“I’m not sure why it happened — there was no major event that would have caused it.”

Generally, Leamen said people have more options in the summer. For example, those struggling with housing can get by in the summer, but not so in the winter months.

He said the organization is generally busier in the fall, because children go back to school — and they have people who come to the food bank solely for the backpack program. As well, Thanksgiving often draws a lot of people to use the food bank’s services.

Leamen said the increased usage has held strong and they have had six registrations already in October.

“The month definitely started out on-pace with what we were seeing in the summer,” he said. “If it continues — if we get another 10 or 11 (this month) that’s a lot.”

Although Leamean has only been the managing director of the Flamborough Food Bank since October 2018, he said he has spoken to longtime manager Gail Bosma, who had not seen that rapid an increase over her time with the food bank.

“It’s seemingly unprecedented,” he said.

But despite the increase in usage, Leamen said because of the generous Flamborough community, the food bank is able to keep pace.

“We don’t have a food shortage — we’re nowhere near that,” he said. “We get great support out of the community from people, plus all the local organizations like Lions, and Rotary and so on.”

“We’re a symptom of a poverty issue,” he said. “We fill a gap, but the true problem is the poverty side.”

But as much as he is not concerned about a food shortage, Leamen said the food bank does need community support more than ever.

“We’re not hurting for food but we do need your support because if it keeps increasing we will run into a problem at some point.”

The increase in usage is something that is being felt across the city, said Tom Cooper, the director of the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction.

“I know there’s been an increase in children usage of food banks, at least children who need additional food assistance,” he said. “So it’s not entirely shocking that we’re seeing communities right across the region seeing increased numbers in food bank visitors.”

He said a number of different factors impact the increased need, particularly increased housing prices — especially in the rental market.

“It’s really making it challenging for families to balance housing costs, as well as food and other essentials in their lives,” he said. “That’s probably accounting for a significant increase in food bank use.”

As well, Cooper said a freeze on social assistance programs has had an impact, which means people who rely on the Ontario Disability Support Plan or Ontario Works — often those who use food banks the most — aren’t seeing any additional income coming in to cover basic necessities.

Meanwhile, Cooper said, food prices are increasing — for example last year the cost of fresh produce was up 11 per cent.

“There’s a lot of different reasons for increased food bank use,” he said.

Meanwhile, Food With Grace Waterdown Food Bank community liaison Lena Aggus said they have also seen an increase — approximately 20 per cent over the summer months.

“We couldn’t really figure out what was happening, but for some reason we have definitely had an increase in people applying,” she said. “Most of the people who have come in through the summer have been steady.

“It’s not a one-time thing or a two-week thing — it’s been through the summer.”

Aggus said it is hard to explain why there has been such an increase in summer months — adding they were not expecting an increase.

“The economy seemed to be fairly decent,” she said. “There are always people who are in need, of course, but there’s usually a real increase when the economy takes a downturn — and we haven’t really seen that.”

She said the numbers are likely the result of housing pressures in Waterdown and changes in family budgets due to job loss, illness or family breakups. As well, there are a number of residents who have reached retirement age and require further assistance.

Aggus said the increase has the potential to put pressure on the organization's food stores.

“We rely on the food that we collect — especially the non-perishable food — through Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter,” she said. “Toward the end of the summer our cupboards begin to get depleted and need to be replenished.”

However, Aggus said during the late summer period, Food With Grace was blessed with donations of fresh vegetables.

“We just started to replenish because of the Fortinos food drive,” she said. “The community has been extremely generous to both food banks.”