Food News

Cardboard boxes are now ‘like gold’ to food banks struggling to keep up with demand

The cost of cardboard is the latest struggle London’s food bank is adding to its list of problems, with ever-increasing demand putting pressure on the supply of boxes used to store and distribute food.

It’s yet another example of the increasingly tight situation food banks across the country are finding themselves in as inflation and other factors drive up the cost of food, rent, and even cardboard, said London Food Bank co-director Glen Pearson.

“The usage of these boxes and the need for the boxes has doubled,” Pearson said of the past two years. “It just shows you how the food bank world is changing. We’re having to re-think all of this stuff.”

The London Food Bank has experienced a sharp increase in visits since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with more community agencies than ever before turning to the service to feed clients, and a record number of families and individuals being served as well.

Adding the cost of boxes to the equation has increased strain on the operation, said Jane Roy, Pearson’s counterpart as co-director of the food bank.

As it turns out, she says, boxes aren’t cheap when you’re buying thousands of them.

“We’ve spent about $5,000 so far this year at about 50 cents a box — and that’s at a reduced rate,” Roy said. “Last year, we spent $20,000 on boxes.”

That’s not counting the thousands of paper bags the food bank distributes food in, which costs 10 to 15 cents a piece, she added.

Glen Pearson stands in the London Food Bank, in front of boxes of food.
Glen Pearson is the co-director of the London Food Bank. He says the food bank helped over 175,000 people in 2023 and will help even more in 2024. (Alessio Donnini/CBC News)

Generosity outweighed by demand

The boxes London’s food bank buys are a small portion of the boxes that are donated, but the current trajectory of food insecurity is likely to increase that amount significantly, Pearson said.

Since the beginning of its almost 40 year history the London Food Bank, like food banks across Canada, has relied on the generosity of breweries such as London’s Labatt Brewery for a sizable portion of their box supply, he said. Those boxes are usually either misprinted or have advertisements for promotions that are no longer running.

“They were what the clients told us were ideal for them to carry things home. They were also ideal for stacking in the warehouse, and we never had to pay for those boxes,” Pearson said. “The breweries have been so generous.”

However, while the London Food Bank continues to go through roughly 4,500 beer boxes every month, the number they’re getting has declined while demand has increased due to the competing needs of other food banks.

“More used to be given to us, but Toronto Daily Bread, for example, gets literal truckloads of these boxes,” said Roy, recognizing that demand is higher in Toronto. “We try not to compete with each other, and we talk to each other.”

A volunteer at the London Food Bank loads up a shopping cart full of hampers for families in need.  The charity has seen a record-setting summer in terms of demand and with inflation pinching family budgets all over the city, donations will likely suffer too.
A volunteer at the London Food Bank loads up a shopping cart full of hampers for families in need. Beer boxes are perfect for food banks in terms of stackability and ease of carrying due to their dimensions and built-in handles, Pearson says. (Colin Butler/CBC)

The natural solution, Roy said, is to take steps to reduce the amount of cardboard the food bank goes through. Those steps include asking clients to bring their own reusable bags, and beginning preliminary discussions on potentially asking for public donations.

For the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank, which still manages to go without paying for boxes and hasn’t relied extensively on breweries for donations, the solution includes spending more time and effort collecting boxes from the community.

“We’re all over town picking them up. Bankers boxes, banana boxes, milk crates, re-usable shopping bags have become a godsend,” said Karen McDade, the co-manager of the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank.

“Every box is like gold in our books.”