According to the Daily Bread Food Bank, Zoomers are the fastest growing group of food bank users in Toronto.
About 35% of the more than 900,000 visits to the food bank in the past year were by people over 45, up from about 25% a decade ago.
By contrast, the food bank’s annual report called “Who’s Hungry”, shows visits by people under 18 dropped from 34% to 29% in the same time period.
The report says that while strides have been made in the past 10 years in income support for children, little has been done for older adults. Particularly hard hit are single Zoomers who lost their jobs during the recession and who are having a difficult time re-entering the labour market.