Photo: Smiths Falls Community Food Bank (supplied)
The Smiths Falls Community Food Bank says demand remained high in May, with 1,001 visitors turning to the organization for help.
The monthly snapshot shows the food bank served 609 adults, 330 children and 62 seniors. Of those visitors, 26 were new to the food bank, while 975 had used the service before.
The food bank says it spent $19,669.37 on food during the month. It also received 3,676 pounds of donated food, while giving out 22,623 pounds of perishable and non-perishable food to local residents.
Volunteers also played a major role, contributing 317 hours in May.
The food bank says its top needed items this month are soups, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables and cereal.
The numbers offer a local look at a wider affordability problem being felt across Ontario. Feed Ontario’s latest Hunger Report says more than one million people used a food bank in Ontario between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025. That was up nearly 10,000 people from the year before and 87 per cent higher than in 2019-20.
The same report says Ontario food banks recorded more than 8.7 million visits last year, a 13 per cent increase from the previous year.
In eastern Ontario, Feed Ontario says food bank visits were up 99 per cent from 2019-20 to 2024-25, while the number of unique individuals using food banks rose 79 per cent.
Food Banks Canada also reported nearly 2.2 million food bank visits across Canada in March 2025, the highest number recorded nationally, with children accounting for about one-third of those visits
