Like other Torontonians, I’m starting to notice the proliferation of food bank lineups throughout the city. I regularly pass by churches, community centres and little storefronts with massive queues. The lines look like people are waiting outside to snag concert tickets or to enter a pop-up store to buy sought-after merchandise. But the people in line are actually collecting grocery staples, trying to avoid going hungry. Just a few years ago, before inflation skyrocketed and rent was more affordable, the Daily Bread Food Bank serviced roughly 65,000 clients a month through its network of 128 community organizations in Toronto. This spring, that number more than quadrupled to 270,000. Goldie Wallensky, a precariously housed 69-year-old on a fixed income, has become an expert on where to go on which days of the week to pick up Kraft macaroni, eggs and Campbell’s soup. “If I didn’t have access to these programs, I would starve,” she tells Maclean’s in this memoir of her food bank use.
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
