A food clearing house in the province describes the current situation trying to help those in need stock the cupboards as out of control.

Inflation is running at a 40-year high and food banks everywhere are having trouble keeping up.

Jody Williams, manager of Bridges to Hope which also serves customers outside St. John’s, says they have never seen it like this. He said before the pandemic, 90 per cent of their food was donated. All that came to a halt a couple of years ago because most of the food came from community groups, and schools among others. He says things haven’t really recovered.

For example, it used to take about two months to get 4 to 6 people who had never been to a food bank before. Now they can get that in one day. Williams also says a busy day before the pandemic was maybe 40 people—now they can get up to 100.