Charity sees spike in food insecurity of kids across Waterloo region

This pandemic has brought on new challenges for Food4Kids Waterloo Region, whose staff have been working hard to stay afloat.

The charity is helping feed nearly 200 new students this year, bringing its total to about 750. It's also serving adozen more schools than last year.

"We're seeing that families are in a position where they're not doing very well financially and are under much stress," said Kelly-Sue Oberle, executive director.

The charity gives students bags of food to take home over the weekends during the school year andswitches to a daily program over the winter, March and summerbreaks.

At the start of the pandemic, the charity added more service days and switched to grocery cards, which increased its costs from a couple thousand to $173,000 in the span of two months.

"It was a lot," said Oberle. "We tried to do the best we could to get them as much as we could."

Future uncertain

Jennifer Levitt, a single mother,turned to the service a year ago during her cancer treatment. She said it was her family's only food source at one point during the pandemic.

"It was almost a lifesaver because I was able to utilize food banks and it was easy to get food baskets from churches, but as soon as COVID-19 hit all of that closed," said Levitt.

The uncertainty around if another lockdown is on the horizon is raising concerns for the charity, which is currently working on a backup plan.

"We're always looking two weeks out," said Oberle, adding that the charity may turn to grocery cards again if demand continues to rise.