Guelph Food Bank Essay

The Guelph Food Bank, is an essential organization in Guelph. The purpose of the food bank is to provide food to the less fortunate. With an unpredictable economy, many people are living paycheque to paycheque, trying to survive on little income. Due to the high costs of rent, not all people are able to purchase groceries and rely on the food bank to provide them with the essentials. The Guelph food bank also serves people who are unemployed as well as people who are living with illnesses. Welfare cheques simply do not provide enough to cover all the expenses that an average person has to deal with. Therefore, the Guelph foodbank’s mission is to not only provide food to the unemployed but to also help people who do not have enough money to purchase food. It not only wants to help people short term, but its goal to help people in the long term by helping them become independent of organizations.

The figure below shows the amount of people in Canada who rely on a food bank. Since the recession in 2008, every province and territory with the exception of Newfoundland, have seen an increase in the amount of people who used a food bank.

Figure 1. Food Bank Use in Canada

Figure 1. Food Bank Use in Canada. Reprinted from 5 common myths about food bank use in Canada,

Its point is to show how it feels to live on the low end of the housing spectrum. When people think of real estate, many automatically think of the middle class who live comfortably in a house or apartment. What many people do not think of is the people who are a part of the lower class and struggle to pay for rent. When an individual spends the majority of one’s income on rent, or relies on government assistance, having enough money to purchase food can be tough. Therefore, by volunteering at the food bank, it will give people a new perspective in terms of the inequality of the housing