International students in Metro Vancouver turn to food bank as prices keep climbing

Everything seems to be getting more expensive. Food, gas and housing prices are on the rise while paycheques are slow to keep pace. The CBC News series Priced Out explains why you're paying more at the register and how Canadians are coping with the high cost of everything.

When Kiranjeet Kaurmoved to Canada in 2019 to go to school, she didn't expect she'd needto manage her expenses to the last dollarand still have no money to buy groceries.

"When we come from India, we don't have work ...and we have a lot of expenses to manage, like our mobile bills, our rent and they run up our fees,"Kaur, 21.

Roadblocks to putting food on her table includedifficulty finding work andmaking sure she doesn't tap into money saved fortuition fees.

Kaur says international students spendaround $1,000 a month on basicsincludinghousing, phone,internet, medical expenses while earning less than that. When she realized that she needed help with food, she discovered Guru Nanak Food Bank in Surreyand became a member.

Neeraj Walia, the director of Guru Nanak Food Bank, says he sees young people from around the world.

"We have participants, especially international students, from everywhere, from India, from Bangladesh, from Nepal, Pakistan. We have [international students] from China, Japan, Norway" hesays.

Walia says the food bank openedin 2020 with a focus on international students from South Asia, but soon learnedthat students from many different countries were facing the same issue of food insecurity.

Paying tuition a priority

"They are really in the financial stress. They are only allowed to work for 20 hours [per week]. Rents are increasing as the house pricesincrease," Walia says.

He has heard multiple stories of international students trying to pay their tuition fee without going into more debt. He says paying tuition fees on time is more important for most of themthan eating a healthy, balanced diet.

Out of 2,200 food bank members, more than 1,500 are international students. To help international students in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior, Guru Nanak Food Bankhasopened a second food bank in Abbotsford, and will opena third one in Kelownathis year.

A recent study fromRyerson University looking into the issuefound that Kaur's experience isn't unique.

Sutama Ghosh, associate professor in Ryerson'sdepartment of geography and environmental sciences, was one of four researchers whointerviewed 30 international students.

Many saidfamilies had taken outloans against theirland or sold land to pay for education, leavingstudents on extremely tight budgets as they try avoidcausingmore hardship.

"The greatest food insecurityideas came up when we asked them to describe 'What do you eat all day?' And upon talking to us, they realized that they have not eaten anything. They didn't talk about gaining weight. They did talk about losing weight. Feeling sick, missing classes, feeling anxious."

Subsidized cafeterias a solution

Through tuition fees and living expenses, foreign students contribute approximately $22 billion annually to Canada's economy. But Ghoshsays depsite that, studentsare treated as "clients" and not "future Canadians."

Onepossible solutionfor this issue, Ghosh says could be subsidized cafeterias.

"We have to think of international students as not clients, but somebody who has the potential to makeCanada a better place,"says Ghosh.

Do rising food prices have you experiencing sticker shock at the grocery store? Show us what you've been seeing at your local supermarket and send a photo or video with a brief description to ask@cbc.ca. Be sure to also include your name and location. It may be featured on CBC News Network.