More hungry Montrealers are trying to get by on fewer donations, say charity groups, and it's putting a serious strain on the system.
Harvest Montreal, the city's largest food donation service, said a recent survey revealed that the number of Montrealers going to food banks at least three times each month has grown by 32 per cent in the past year to 18,000 people.
The larger problem is that since the economic downturn began last year, there's been a 21 percent drop in the amount of donations.
if people aren't more generous, Harvest Montreal will have to stop helping so many food banks, said Zakary Rhissa, of the the organization.
"We have less donation for this year, so if you can have permanent funding coming from ... government, it would be best for us," said Rhissa.
Harvest Montreal says 15 percent of its regular clients are the working poor, which is up from 10 percent last year.
"We're not going hungry but I'm cutting on food. The (kids) cannot eat when they want and I try to teach them that it's better like that, but I am stressed out," said Sandra O'Donoughue, who lost her job as a daycare educator in September. She has been working since then, but said it's not enough to support her two teenage boys.
O'Donoughue isn't alone.
"We've definitely over the past year seen an increase of 25 per cent, of people needing our services. That translates roughly 400 families more coming in to Sun Youth every month," said Sun Youth's Eric Kingsley.
