Canada's largest food bank is reporting a sharp increase in the number of people in the Montreal area in need of emergency food assistance.
Figures released by Moisson Montréal show between March 2015 and March of this year, nearly 950,000 requests for food assistance were made per month — up 8 per cent over the previous year.
The head of Moisson Montréal, Richard Daneau, that amounts to $81 million worth of food.
He also says he's noticing that the face of the typical food bank user is changing — saying it's not just the homeless and the desitute that are showing up.
"More and more people that have jobs that do have a recurrent income...but it's not sufficient for them to make ends meet," he says.
He also suggests more young families and students are also turning up at food banks.
Moisson is also dealing with a lack of funding. According to Daneau, only 10 per cent of it comes from the government, and because of lack of money the food bank has had to start charging the non-profit groups it supplies.
Daneau also says the annual Media's Big Food Drive, which takes place on Dec. 8, will be especially important to them this year in order to fulfill the growing needs.
-CJAD 800's Andrew Brennan contributed to this report.