Over 7,000 people using northwestern Ontario food banks each month, new report says

People in northwestern Ontario are continuing to go hungry, the Regional Food Distribution Association (RFDA) notes in its latest report card, issued Monday.

Members organizations served 1,202,256 meals in 2017 based on modified hunger count data, which is an estimate drawn from a variety of statistics including the volume of food distributed, average hamper size, andfamily information.

'When we extrapolated the data to include locations that lack service,we concluded that we are approximately 300,000 meals short across the region. Hunger still exists," wrote VolkerKromm, the association's execuvtive director.

More than 7,100 people, which is approximatelythree per cent of the total population of northwestern Ontario, used the services of RFDA members on a monthly basis. Special projects, such as CBC's Sounds of the Season, helped serve an additional 1,054 people.

But there are still eight organizations on a waiting list for the association's services, said Kromm.

"Half of them are in Thunder Bay. They're small charitable organizations that have programming needs mental health, counselling, those kinds of things and the other ones are First Nations communities," hesaid, adding that some of those communitiesare remote and difficult to access.

As well, sharing food equitably across the region still remains a challenge, Kromm said.

Grocery stores helpingsupply food

"The sharing part is not easy when you have distances and transportation costs and storage issues," he said."Those are big challenges, so for me that's a big problem."

Nonetheless, Krommsaid he continues to be buoyed by the organization's success in improving access to healthy, fresh food.

Major grocery chains such as Metro and Loblaws are diverting food that might otherwise end up in the landfill, he said.

A partnership with the provincial Ministry of National Resources and Forestry provides wild game meat at Christmas time.

The report also notedthat food banks are looking for ways to lift people out of poverty, rather than simply providing for those in need.

It identifies several new models of service,such as an Indigenous food education and processing centre.

Looking at new ways to share, use food

Krommgave the example of visitingMishkeegogamang First Nation to delivera load of vegetables, and then asking community leaders what they might be able to share with the network.

"Mishkeegogamang says, 'Well we have wild rice. We have sturgeon. We have something that our organization ... can provide'," said Kromm.

The RFDA is also conducting a feasibility study to look at creating and marketing food products made with produce deemed too ugly for grocery stores.