Food bank usage in Nova Scotia is up again this year

More Nova Scotians are facing food insecurity in 2024, according to the head of Feed Nova Scotia.

From January to May of 2024, 169,000 Nova Scotians visited food banks — an increase of 21 per cent from the same time last year.

“It’s about 1,700 people per day being supported by food banks, and Halifax Regional Municipality leads all the other municipalities in terms of the number of new people entering the system,” Nick Jennery, the executive director of Feed Nova Scotia, said to CityNews Halifax. “So the numbers are not good.”

Listen to interview with Nick Jennery of Feed Nova Scotia

Some 43,000 unique visits were made to food banks, an increase of 11 per cent, Jennery says. More than 20 per cent of people going to food banks have full-time jobs.

According to the Canadian Income Survey for 2022 published on April 26, food insecurity for Nova Scotians was the highest in the country, with 7.3 per cent of people missing meals, reducing intake or going day(s) without food.

About 15.1 per cent said they compromised on quality or quantity of food while 6.1 per cent worry about running out of food.

Jennery said the rise in food insecurity creates a challenge for an already-strained healthcare system.

“Unhealthy people are usually people who don’t have access to food,” he said.

Jennery says opportunities for change are coming, with federal, provincial and municipal elections on the horizon.

“This is your once-in-four-year opportunity to say ‘what’s the plan’,” Jennery said.