By Louis Belcourt, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

The Cortes Food Bank has released their annual report for 2023 over the weekend, which shows that it was a very successful year for the Cortes Island Food Bank, but also a highly challenging one.

Over the final months of 2023, the Cortes Food Bank served an average of 80 clients per month, which is almost as many clients as in the whole of 2022: a 616% increase year over year, according to the report.

“We really ramped up promoting the food bank, and immediately we got a response of so many more people. And it was quite scary because we weren’t expecting that big of a rise,” says Filipe Figueira, coordinator and treasurer of the Cortes Food Bank.

“The number of new clients needing help is increasing every single week – from every demographic,”Figueira added.

Top image credit: The food bank is now serving around 80 clients a month on Cortes Island. Photo courtesy of the Cortes Food Bank