New Brunswick food bank use exceeds national averages

A greater proportions of food bank users in New Brunswick are children, homeowners, orwelfare recipients, anew national report shows.

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Hunger Count 2015 found the number of people using food banks across the country is up for a second year in a row to 850,000people a month.

In New Brunswick, 40 per cent of food bank users are children, compared to 35 per cent nationally.

Close to 20 per cent of New Brunswick food bank usersown their own homes while the national figure isseven per cent.

Also, 70 per cent of food bank users receive social assistance benefits in New Brunswick, which exceeds the Canadian average of 50 per cent.

"Social assistance in New Brunswick is actually the lowest in Canada," said Katharine Schmidt, the executive director of Food Banks Canada.

She said a single person on social assistance would receive $560 a month in New Brunswick.

"So you're trying to cover your basic housing and also be able to purchase food and any other life necessities. It's really, really tough," she said.

Schmidt's group is asking governments to take a hard look at revamping social assistance programs into something more effective and to invest in affordable housing, educationand training.

She said that will reduce the cost of poverty in the long term.

Food bank use today is 26 per cent higher than when the global economic downturn hit in 2009, says the organization.