Toronto – December 18, 2013 – About 1.7 million individuals in Canada were helped by food banks in 2013. For about 900,000 of these visitors, 2013 was the first year they needed a food bank in their struggle to put food on the table. In total, there were more than 14 million visits to food banks in Canada in 2013, and the need in 2014 is not expected to drop. The number of people turning to food banks is actually higher than when the recession began five years ago, and across Canada, more than four million people (including more than a million children) go hungry because they can't afford to meet their needs when it comes to food.

• 14,059,668 Number of visits to food banks in Canada in 2013

• 36%  Percentage of those assisted by the food distributed who were children

• 4,743 Number of food banks/emergency food agencies in Canada

• 91 million Kilograms of food distributed by Canada's food banks in 2013

• 17% Percentage of food bank users who are employed or recently employed

• 25% Percentage of food bank users who head single-parent families

• 22% Percentage of food users from two-parent families

• 43% Percentage of food bank users who live alone

• 7% Percentage of food bank users who are living on pension income

• 38% Percentage of food banks forced to cut back on what they provide each household

• 8%  Percentage of individuals turned away because the food bank ran out of food

Source: Food Banks Canada HungerCount 2013 Report.