Nearly 60% of low-income Canadian households considering charity to make ends meet

Canadians continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, according to an Ipsos poll commissioned by Canada Helps, which found that 56 per cent of households with incomes below $60,000 are unsure if they can afford food, shelter or health services without charitable assistance.

Seventy per cent of those surveyed said they have reduced leisure spending to meet essential needs, while 29 per cent of respondents said they had to cut back on food, and a quarter had reduced their transportation spending to pay for other essentials.

The poll found that more than a fifth of Canadians with household incomes under $40,000 now rely on charitable services to meet their daily essential needs.

Duke Chang, Canada Helps CEO, said that the ongoing Canada Post strike is also making it harder for charities to fundraise in the lead-up to the winter holiday season, further compounding the issue.

Canada’s Food Price Report, an annual collaboration between Dalhousie University, the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of British Columbia, found that 8.7 million Canadians currently live in “food-insecure” households.

As a result, food banks nationwide continue to struggle to meet the record-breaking demand for service.

“This unthinkable rate of growth is not something food banks, nor people in Canada, can sustain,” said Kirstin Beardsley, Food Banks Canada CEO. “Everyone must come to the table to solve this problem. We cannot do it alone and need help to drive change.”