In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.

In 2021, the pantry served about 100 families per month. Now, it serves about 450 families a month, she said.

“After the first year I was here, [need] was up 112 per cent,” said Simmonds, the Wentworth Street North organization’s operations manager. “Then it was up 62 per cent the next year… Our resources were really stretched.”

Around a year ago, the centre decided to focus its services to residents of the lower city, drastically reducing the number of people eligible to use the pantry, which stocks dry goods, household products and toiletries. That way, they could be closer to meeting the needs of each food bank user.

And still, th

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