Good morning.
My name is Marie-Pier Gravel, and I am the assistant manager of La bouchée généreuse.
The situation of food banks in Quebec is critical, as it is in the rest of Canada. Calls for help are skyrocketing, vastly exceeding available resources.
Ten per cent of the population of Canada now relies on food banks to feed themselves. At La bouchée généreuse, the organization where I work, 350 families relied on food aid every week in 2019. In 2023, that number has tripled to 1,000 families a week. Requests for assistance are constantly rising, endangering the capacity of food banks to help every family in need. What resources will those families have when they are no longer able to feed their children? Will they be forced to consider stealing?
You should be outraged by the figures I'm giving you. It's essential that quick and effective action be taken. It's shameful that so many families and individuals go hungry in a country as wealthy as Canada. The funding that governments currently provide are paltry compared to the scope of this crisis. It is the duty of every elected member to guarantee that the public be able to feed themselves appropriately.
I encourage you to visit the food banks in your constituencies before the next budget is adopted.