It’s been another year of unprecedented demand for Edmonton’s Food Bank — an all-too-common situation in recent years that shows no sign of changing.
“Depending if you go back a couple years or five years — you’re seeing huge increases in people needing our services,” said Marjorie Bencz, executive director of Edmonton’s Food Bank.
The organization is nearing the end of its Festive Campaign and sitting at about 62 per cent of food donations and 85 per cent of monetary donations.
It’s these community contributions that set the tone for services in 2026.
“Everybody is facing challenges with household budgets. Having said that, I’m finding people are still very kind and generous to us,” Bencz said.
The food bank supports more than 43,000 people a months and donations are not keeping pace.
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“It has been a challenging year for us to get the food into the warehouse. Some of our major events, for example, Candy Cane Lane — it’s been a bit slower so we’re not seeing the contributions we normally would,” Bencz explained.
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That is being felt across the country. Economic pressures like cost of living and high inflation mean many people are prioritizing their own essentials over giving.
“Food banks are tremendously challenged by the fact that there’s seriousness around food insecurity,” said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.
“Right now it’s at 25 per cent, so 1 in 4 Canadians is food insecure right now.”
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“Individualized philanthropy is extremely difficult these days, because a lot of people who used to donate to the food bank are food bank users themselves now – we’ve seen some of these stories.”
The latest Food Price Report published earlier this month is warning Canadians to brace for higher food costs next year.
“We are forecasting food prices to rise by as much as six per cent in 2026. For a family of four, they’re looking at an increase of $994 for the entire year,” Charlebois explained – who led the annual report.
If you can give back to the food bank, consider this:
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“You need more money to buy the same amount and certainly for people thinking about giving to the food banks, money is the best thing because food banks have the ability to stretch a dollar way more than we can,” Charlebois said.
To donate to Edmonton’s Food Bank, visit their website.
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