Hunger

An evil truth stares at us daily. The images and the numbers are shocking, and what’s worse – they’re increasing. Millions of people spread around the world are suffering what the spin doctors call ‘food insecurity.”

I call it hunger.

In some communities, there are babies, children, mothers and fathers struggling every day to obtain a reliable source of food. The battle ranges from anxiety to desperation and then panic. It’s happening for a lot of reasons: war, conflict, politics, drought and circumstances, to name but a few. Yes, starvation is happening in faraway countries, but hunger is also here, in our own communities.

In 2024, Toronto food banks experienced a record-breaking 3.49 million client visits, according to the Daily Bread Food Bank. This is a significant increase of nearly one million more visits compared with 2023, and nearly four times the pre-pandemic levels. The hunger crisis in the GTA is being driven by the rising cost of living and inflation, with many people relying on food banks for the first time. 

A few years ago, in a letter to the Globe & Mail newspaper, an associate professor in the School of Health Studies at Queen’s University suggested it was time to close all of Canada’s food banks, because the evidence indicates food banks cannot end hunger or eliminate poverty. The professor stated there was no end in sight to providing temporary food relief and wondered what the benefit was of such a program. Her comments produced an angry firestorm online – more than 350 people posted that they disagreed with her analysis.

Good nutrition is the foundation of good health, at all ages in all countries. Hunger is a mystifying condition which I don’t fully understand. We live in a rich country that produces more than enough food. How can this situation be permitted? It’s past time to figure out exactly how to overcome this problem permanently. Starving children and families facing hunger don’t need a philosophical debate – they need food.