Daily Bread Food Bank volunteers are busy as users have spiked due to thousands of Toronto residents recently laid off, or who’ve lost their jobs, due to COVID-19.

Daily Bread officials say there has been a sharp rise in the use of food banks and a diminished capacity to deliver food since one in three food banks have shut down because they are operated from community spaces that were mandated to close, or run by seniors who are deemed high risk.

That leaves people on social assistance fewer options to access food, forcing them to travel further and ultimately put themselves, and those around them, at a higher risk of the virus.

“Food banks are being stretched to a breaking point,” says a Daily Bread release. “We are seeing growth in a new group of food bank clients and that is the thousands of recently unemployed.”

Daily Bread and more than 130 organizations have issued an open letter calling for the Ontario government to support low-income individuals during COVID-19 by increasing social assistance rates and stopping the claw-back of federal benefits.

Daily Bread’s Talia Bronstein says food bank use is a barometer of poverty, and food bank use has risen sharply as a result of COVID-19.

The agency says there has been a 53% jump in visits in the past few weeks to the Daily Bread’s on-site food bank on New Toronto St.

“We are trying to meet the everyday food needs of low-income Ontarians, rather than act as what we were set up to do – provide short-term food relief to tide people over when they faced an unexpected economic shock,” food bank officials say.

Prior to COVID-19, social assistance recipients made up over 60% of food bank use. Of those who received social assistance, 53% had been accessing food banks regularly for over 2 years, compared to only 42% of food bank clients with other income sources.

Daily Bread provides food support to about 66 food banks and 135 member agencies. They also provide homemade meals to agencies that operate shelters or drop-in programs, which feeds up to 5,000 people weekly across the city.

Residents are being urged to order goods online for drop off at the Daily Bread Food Bank, or make donations online at dailybread.ca