The Food Banks Canada report for 2022 showed that Canadians need to access food more than ever before.

Despite low unemployment rates in March 2022, the report says there were 1.5 million visits to food banks across Canada, the highest usage ever, representing a 15 percent increase from the previous year and a 35 percent increase from March 2019.

Also, Food Banks Canada used statistics from "most" organizations and numbers recorded only from March 2022. This means that some people entering the food bank may not have been counted. Income data from the StatCan Income Survey also reported that 5.8 million Canadians lived in food-insecure households in 2021.

For the first time, there was a significant increase in the number of food bank clients who have a source of income, rising by 14.1 percent in 2022. The report stated: "According to survey participants, the top three reasons people entered a food bank this year were food costs, lower regional social assistance rates, and housing costs."

This also comes at a time when Statistics Canada said on Wednesday that the inflation rate for October was 6.9 percent, the same as in September. Inflation has been declining for several months, even as gas and grocery prices continue to rise.

The report explains that the use of food banks "in general" reflects unemployment rates, as seen after the 2008 recession. At that time, food bank visits were a "last resort" and people only turned to organizations after severance pay, employment insurance, and savings ran out.