Thank you, Mr. Chair, for that question.
I think the challenge we're seeing is that there has been an increase in both the depth and breadth of food insecurity, meaning that we are seeing significantly more people in our community who are relying on our food bank to make ends meet. That means that this year, until the end of September, demand has been about 35.7% higher than in the previous year. The previous year it was a bit more than 34% higher than in the year before that. Those sorts of increases year over year are challenging. Maybe a better word would be “frightening”, because that's a very large increase in overall demand.
What we're also seeing within that demand is a depth issue, meaning that we are experiencing about one-fifth—17%—of the people who we have conversations with reporting a net negative income for the month before they've made any consideration for having to purchase food for the month. What they are on is a destitution track. If that trend continues for that family, they will end up without a home; they will end up with nothing and they will end up I don't even know where, because there are not a lot of resources for whole families who are in that position.
We are seeing people with mental health challenges, with addiction issues and all of those things, but we have a lot of families who, at this time two years ago, were living paycheque to paycheque but were doing okay. Now, when prices rise by double-digit percentages very quickly, they are no longer treading water; they are now fully under it. That number is continuing to climb.
We're seeing higher-than-ever percentages of people who have full-time employment accessing the food bank simply because they can't keep up with inflation. Their wages aren't keeping up with inflation, and they're just not able to make ends meet.
Certainly it's a challenging time for the food bank network all the way across the country. I've had multiple conversations with colleagues as far west as Vancouver and those in Mississauga. All the way through, the food bank network is seeing the same thing: a significant increase in demand and a significant increase in the number of people who are severely food insecure.