St. Catharines in Ontario's Niagara Region is not unlike other cities around the country when it comes to the high numbers of people using area food banks.

“Prices have gone up, the housing market has tightened and things are just getting worse. Food bank usage is up, meal program attendance is up and it is not just in St. Catharines and Toronto, this is across the whole of Canada,” said Susan Venditti, the chair of the St. Catharines Out of the Cold Inter-Church Committee. “Coupling that with issues around mental health oversights, it is really a tough time. The hunger is very real, people need to be fed, period.”

Out of the Cold program has officially opened for its 28th season of service as volunteers from the community once again rally together to battle the growing issue of hunger in the region. From Nov. 1 to March 31, hot and nutritious dinners will be available to those in need at several locations open each night to meet a rising demand for accessible and affordable meals. Similar stories are told at other Out of the Cold programs across the province.

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Out of the Cold has long been a charitable staple in Toronto across its 12 chapters in the GTA, but the problems plaguing Ontario’s capital are the same everywhere now, said Venditti.

“For us, it started in the winter of 1996 when Rev. Kathy Petrie along with congregants from Queen Street Baptist Church noticed more hungry and homeless people on the street than they had ever noticed before. Petrie was aware of the Toronto model, and so after a six-week pilot run the urgency for something like this to be run at a greater scale was truly noticed,” she said.

After about a year of operation, St. Catharines' Out of the Cold program had seven churches from various denominations participating, each taking a turn one night a week to provide a hot meal with or without an overnight stay. 

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While the program in Niagara Region’s most populous city began because of poverty indicators that were never before seen at the time, it is nothing compared to how many rely on Out of the Cold’s generosity as of late. According to Venditti, over 24,000 dinners were served last season, the busiest time for the program since 2004. Monday and Tuesday routinely saw upwards of 200 donor-covered meals served each night.

It’s a trend being seen near and far as highlighted by Venditti and not exclusive to Out of the Cold. According to Food Banks Canada's Hunger Count report, more than two million people visited a Canadian food bank in March alone. Bob Foley, a local copy editor for the Diocese of St. Catharine’s journal The Vineyard, says the situation in the area has never been as bad as it is now.

“We have a major problem here and it has gotten worse,” he said. “Our main library is downtown and now they are talking about building a new one because there were so many homeless people (at the old one). I even carry Tim Hortons gift cards in my car so that I can give them to people on the corners where I can.”

The impending need for services like Out of the Cold signifies a double-edged sword for Venditti and volunteers with the program, who do not celebrate the fact their work has become a necessity for so many but do celebrate that they have been able to help in so many ways.

Even after more than two decades, the program has yet to miss a night of service through what Venditti says is by the grace of God and their exceptional volunteer support.

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“Every single night has great volunteers and partners. We want to stay grassroots but my dream is that we can have a network of organizations that provide prepared meals to people who are living in extreme poverty as well,” she said. “As the need grows, so does the response.

“The Gospel teaching has not changed. We do not have a choice, we all as Christians have a calling to help those who are less fortunate, to make sure that people are fed, quenched and that they feel welcome in the communities. It is universal to us here,” she said.