Food banks: Demand remains very strong

Last year was particularly difficult for food banks, and unfortunately we risk experiencing a similar scenario in 2024: the number of donations is actually lower after the holidays, even if needs are still great.

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“Of course, after the holidays, people might be busy with other things, like paying credit cards, things like that, so we always need food in January and February,” explains the general director of food banks in Quebec, Martin Munger.

Therefore, organizations must be more innovative in order to meet the demand, and carry out their operations in a highly organized manner.

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“For now, we are certainly still living with the generosity of people who came during the holiday season, through food drives,” explains Marie-Pierre Gravelle, General Manager of La Bouchée Generous.

Partnerships then develop between food banks and some horticultural or meat producers, as well as some grocers to whom they donate their unsold goods.

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The Entraide Agapè food bank, in the Beauport region of Quebec, has also organized its products received during the holiday season in anticipation of the months of January and February, famous in the food bank world for the low donations we observe there.

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So Agapè Bank decided to set aside some of the non-perishable food items it acquired during its Christmas basket collection and deliver them instead at the beginning of this year.

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“The non-perishable food items collected in December during all the excitement of the holiday season are non-perishable, so they are often saved for the more difficult months of January and February,” explained Genevieve Beaubien, who works at Entraide Agapè.