Food banks in Greater Victoria are seeing increased demand amid rising inflation and gas prices.

The surge in demand is not limited to one particular group of people, with new patrons coming forward for services from all walks of life, said Bev Elder, executive director of the Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank.

The number of seniors coming to the food bank is up in Sidney, as well as the number of single people coming forward, she said.

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The food bank had 21 new households sign up in March and 16 in February, versus around five in an average month.

Goldstream Food Bank had around 60 new households sign up to receive hampers in March versus 18 the same time last year, according to president Gayle Ireland.

Most of the new hamper recipients are people on disability insurance, or those who are B次元官网网址渨orking challenged,B次元官网网址� she said B次元官网网址� people who are working but canB次元官网网址檛 make ends meet. In total 359 hampers went out, serving more than a thousand people in March, which is close to pre-pandemic levels, Ireland said.

The Langford-based food bank is well set up to meet the increased demand, but has gone through most of the extra supplies they received around Christmas, such as hygiene supplies, pet food and toys for kids.

Throughout the pandemic, Elder said, supply chain issues have seen her organization struggle to order items in bulk as they normally would. For example, the food bank might normally order 30 pallets of Kraft Dinner at one time, but at some points were only able to order one or two. Those challenges are easing, but are being replaced with other ones.

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The community support is always strong in Sidney, Elder said, but with inflation, it means peopleB次元官网网址檚 donations donB次元官网网址檛 go as far.

Added Ireland, B次元官网网址淵ou just blink your eye and the prices are up. So itB次元官网网址檚 really hard. ItB次元官网网址檚 really hard for people, we understand that and weB次元官网网址檙e here for them if they need our service.B次元官网网址�

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