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Boom hurts food banks – Metro US

Boom hurts food banks

If you find those bacon-double cheeseburger advertisements on your daily commute to be annoying, imagine looking at them after not eating for a few days, says Edmonton’s Food Bank.

As today is National Hunger Awareness Day — a day to get people thinking about hunger issues — the city food bank’s executive director says the scenario is becoming more of a problem in a booming city like Edmonton.

“In Alberta we have a different understanding of hunger,” said Marjorie Bencz with the city’s food bank.

“We tend to assume that Alberta is a boom province. But with the boom you see increased housing costs and increased costs of food. People are quite challenged by that.”

Increases in living expenses and soaring food costs have hit food banks hard, says Bencz. She says the trends are causing huge workloads for food banks and declines in food donations.

Up to 80 per cent of the food at Edmonton’s food bank is actually from the food industry, explains Bencz.
The food bank collects “edible but not marketable” goods such as day old bread or slightly bruised fruits and veggies — food that is still edible but not available on grocery store shelves.