“Due to the increased visitation to the food bank in the last couple of years, we helped students in September but noticed that there was tremendous abuse and manipulation of our services. We have now stopped the practice of serving them so we can concentrate on our regular clients and refugees,” the head of a food bank in Oshawa told The Epoch Times.
The man said he can’t make his name or the name of the specific food bank public because “we live in an atmosphere that fringe individuals can find any institution a target for some obscure reason to fight with.”
He said he has witnessed international students intentionally misspelling their names or swapping their first and last names in order to get ahead of other people in the line. He also said that when some students received their basket of food, they would only take the items they wanted and “leave the rest outside.”
In early November, the board president of the Ste. Louise Outreach Food Bank in Brampton, Ontario, said the facility had seen so many international students seeking free food that it put up a sign telling them to stay away.
Ms. Rivera noted that other food banks and even churches have also seen this trend. “I’m getting calls now not only from food banks, but churches in Brampton, saying that they’re running out of supplies because they have this influx of students coming.”
Usage Rising Sharply
This relatively new development comes at a time when food bank usage across Canada has been rising sharply.The surveyed students, all of whom were using food banks, also noted that Canada was “much more expensive than they thought it would be, particularly with respect to housing and food.”
At the same time, the number of international students in Canada has hit record levels, with government figures showing that more than 807,000 study permit holders in the country in 2022, an increase of over 190,000 from 2021.
Food Banks ‘New’ to Many Students
Glen Pearson, co-executive director of the London Food Bank and a former Liberal MP, told The Epoch Times that while food banks have been able to help international students for the last four decades, Canada’s high cost of living in recent years “often isn’t communicated effectively to the students before they arrive.”“This is a process that needs to take place at the enrolment level, and all of the institutions have committed to modifying and strengthening the updated information provided to potential students,” he said. “They think they have the funds to cover the costs, only to get here and find out that it’s not as manageable.”
Mr. Pearson said the flood of international students at their local food banks “only emerged in September and has affected all food banks.”
Mr. Pearson said a few food bank staff members had shown him TikTok videos of some students who had visited the facility encouraging their peers to come and obtain free food. When Mr. Pearson met with some of the students and asked them about the videos, they claimed to be “under the impression in coming to Canada that this was just part of what was offered in the culture.”
“It wasn’t so much that they felt they were taking food away from somebody else. They just didn’t understand the role of food banks. That was new to them,” he said.
‘Simply Trying to Get By’
Several food banks across Canada told The Epoch Times that they either hadn’t seen instances of international students abusing the system or didn’t specifically track that metric.Tricia Johnson, director of communications and development at the Ottawa Food Bank, said that while her organization does ask for proof of address and identification, it doesn’t track “students” or “international students” as a demographic.
Ms. Johnson noted that the Ottawa Food Bank has seen a 22 percent increase in visits compared to 2022, and a 68 percent surge in traffic and a 233 percent rise in food purchases for clients since the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period.
The Calgary Food Bank’s communications coordinator BettyJo Kaiser said that although her organization compiles data on the demographics of Canadians who use their services, it also does not track post-secondary students.
“We have seen an approximate 30 percent increase in demand for our services year over year, and that is reflected across all demographics,” she added.
“As far as steps to deal with it, we are choosing to put pressure on decision-makers who can help with policy changes, rather than blaming or shaming international students who are simply trying to get by,” Ms. O'Neil said.
