More than 60K people access food banks in Manitoba each month, report says

Food bank use is rising in Manitoba, with an average of more than 60,000 people accessing Harvest Manitoba services monthly, a report from the organization said.

In addition to the historic demand, which has doubled in the past five years, a record-setting amount of donations were received in the 2025-2026 fiscal year, Harvest Manitoba’s annual report said. More than $14.8-million was used by the not-for-profit to support its clients and programming.

“It takes a province to feed a province,” Vince Barletta, president and CEO at Harvest Manitoba, told Global News in an interview.

“Even though the need is bigger than ever, so is the generosity of Manitobans.”

The report said more than 13 million lbs. of food were distributed by Harvest Manitoba in the last fiscal year – of that, approximately 8.7 million lbs. were received as donations.

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People from all walks of life, including families, those with jobs and seniors, have been visiting food banks, Barletta said.

“The need for food security programs is more broadly based than ever before, and there’s people truly in every community and every neighbourhood that are dealing with food insecurity,” he continued.

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“Food banks have become, sadly, a way of life for thousands of Manitoba families.”

Carinna D’Abramo Rosales is the co-director of Supporting Employment and Economic Development (SEED) Winnipeg, a nonprofit dedicated to helping low-income Manitobans achieve financial empowerment.

“What we’re seeing is just this level of desperation and need for other and additional services to help them along their way,” Rosales said.

“This can be additional things, such as, ‘where can I get extra food to make it through the month or until the next pay cheque comes?'”

Assistance in finding organizations with programs that help cover rent and loan payments are also frequently sought out by SEED’s clients. When an issue is outside of the scope of the nonprofit it refers to the ongoing list of charitable groups, she added.

“The economy is in a really poor state, and people are feeling it in all aspects of their lives. And it feels like it has been on a steady, downward spiral since Covid, but (people are) definitely feeling the intensity ramped up at this point,” Rosales said.

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Nearly half of the people who Harvest Manitoba’s services are children. Approximately 24,880 households visit a food bank every month, according to the organization’s report.

Viktoria Appleyard, a community dietician with the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba, said the increase in the need for food from children has also been reflected in the charity’s work with school lunch programs.

“We are seeing that school food programs are definitely accessed a lot more (with) the increase in participation, we are definitely hearing from schools that is a really big challenge for schools,” Appleyard said.

As a community dietician, Appleyard offers cost-saving recommendations to schools struggling to keep up with the surge of students, while ensuring the meals meet Manitoba’s nutritional guidelines, she said.

“With the rising food cost, it’s definitely still a challenge to feed all the students that are requiring access to these programs,” Appleyard continued.