Many B.C. parents on tight budget ahead of back to school
Posted August 16, 2022 7:15 am.
With just weeks to go until kids go back to school, B.C. parents may not feel like things got any cheaper over the last month. But Statistics Canada says the rate of inflation dropped in July to 7.6 per cent, which is down from the near 40-year record the country saw the previous month.
“Ongoing concerns related to a slowing global economy, as well as increased COVID-19 pandemic public health restrictions in China and slowing demand for gasoline in the United States led to lower worldwide demand for crude oil, putting downward pressure on prices at the pump,” said the report from the federal agency.
But while gas prices declined, food prices at grocery stores rose at the fastest pace since August 1981, with prices up by 9.9 per cent on a year-over-year basis compared with 9.4 per cent the previous month.
Baked goods are up 13.6 per cent since last year amid higher input costs as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to put upward pressure on wheat prices. The prices of other food products also rose faster, including eggs, which are up 15.8 per cent, and fresh fruit, up 11.7 per cent since last year.
All of this is making it more challenging for parents to prepare lunches to help send their kids back to school in three weeks. Everything is more expensive, whether it’s food, or backpacks, glue, and markers.
David Long with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank says they’ve seen a huge jump in people using their service.
“If we see the price of gas go up five cents, we see more people come to the food bank because people are literally living that close and as I tell people, you have a tough choice of, ‘Am I going to feed my kids or am I going to put gas in my car to get to work? What am I going to do?’ So, everything single thing that happens out there is reflected back at the food bank. I can tell you in the last year from 2021-2022, we’ve seen a 29 per cent increase in lives supported by the food bank, which is staggering.”
Read more: Soaring inflation worsens food gap, as kids prepare to go back to school
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank typically serves Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, and the North Shore but Long says even that’s changing.
“We’re the largest food bank in B.C. and right now we are, on a regular basis, shipping food or we’re loading trucks from other food banks and that could be from Merritt or Nanaimo. We do supply a lot of other food banks around the region because there is no shortage of food, there’s a distribution problem. The food system is broken. Internally in Canada, without bringing food in, there’s enough food produced in Canada to feed 52 million people, there’s approximately 38 million people in the country and 4 million people go hungry.”
If you’re able to help, Long says cash is better than food donations because they are to stretch those dollars further.
“People having a tough time. They can afford those instant noodles, they can afford the Kraft Dinner. What they can’t afford is the milk, the cream, and the cheese. The fresh fruit, the fresh vegetables, and the meat. We’re really changing what we’re giving people.”
Meantime, Scott Hannah with the Credit Counselling Society says so many people have been reaching out for help, they’ve had to hire more staff. He says clients are telling them about how much they’re struggling, adding many aren’t even able to think about back-to-school needs.
“‘Do I go to the grocery store, or do I pay my hydro?’ That’s what we’re hearing. For some people, about 25 per cent of the population, they’re having those kinds of thoughts. ‘How do I pay for my necessities of life? Something has to give because I can’t keep up with all of this. I don’t know how.'”
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Hannah adds the key is to have a budget and understanding the need to cut back to make it all work.
“Before you go shopping to the malls or online, shop at your house first. Look at what school supplies that are still in good condition that will work. Look at what clothes that still fit and are still functional for your kids because you don’t have to buy everything at once. Also, that philosophy that you have to buy something new, or is it my kids need something new for them, that may not necessarily be new? Talk to friends and family about swapping clothes and what do they have to keep costs down.”
Depending on your kid’s age, he suggests you talk to them them about finances, where your family is at, and the realistic needs.
– With files from Martin MacMahon and The Canadian Press
