58,000 people expected to use food banks in Mississauga by May 2024, agency predicts

The number of people who need help putting food on the table in Mississauga is growing much faster than the city’s largest food bank predicted just six months ago.

Officials at Food Banks Mississauga, which operates a network of more than 60 member agencies across Canada’s seventh-largest city, said this week that the organization has seen more food bank users since June than it did in all of 2022.

“And we are projecting that we will see 58,000 neighbours in need by May 2024 — 25 per cent more than our projections just six months ago,” FBM CEO Meghan Nicholls said in an email update to the community.

Numbers from the umbrella agency earlier this fall revealed that FBM had, at that time, helped provide meals for 35,538 people so far in 2023 — or five per cent of Mississauga’s population.

And now, officials say, they’re expecting that number to grow by about 23,000 people in the next five months.

FBM’s latest Annual Impact Report, released in October, shows the organization is providing meals for 82 per cent more people today than it did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also revealed that from June 2022 through this past May, FBM served 18 per cent more people than the previous year.

The bottom line, says Nicholls, is that the need is more rapidly growing than ever before, in Mississauga and other communities across both Ontario and Canada.

The “crisis” situation, she adds, prompted FBM to set its largest-ever cash goal for its annual Holiday Drive, which runs until Jan. 8.

The organization seeks to raise $2 million in order to help meet just a fraction of the current need.

The ambitious financial goal is necessary, food bank officials say, “as the need for food in Mississauga continues to skyrocket.”

FBM has distributed 5.9 million pounds of food in the past 12 months and the number of people in need is growing at a record-setting pace month by month, according to Nicholls.

She said the charitable organization served 16,759 people in October, an all-time high number of users in a single month.

“We continue to see record-breaking need in our community, and we’re predicting it will only continue to increase in the coming months and weeks,” Nicholls said in an online video to FBM supporters.

“It’s our busiest holiday season on record,” she added.

Food Banks Mississauga CEO Meghan Nicholls addresses city council in October.

FBM officials say monetary donations enable the huge charitable network to source and purchase fresh and frozen food such as dairy, meat, grains, fruit and vegetables in bulk at lower prices than retail.

Every dollar donated allows FBM to provide “healthy and appropriate food for one meal to those in need,” they add.

At least one burden on FBM might be lifted if a plan from a Mississauga city councillor comes to fruition.

Ward 5’s Carolyn Parrish told Nicholls in October at city council she’s working on a deal that could get FBM its own parcel of land upon which to build its own facility rather than continuing to lease space at $1 million per year.

(Cover photo: Food Banks Mississauga)