Carmichael Outreach seeing increasing demand for meals

Carmichael Outreach in Regina has seen a considerable spike in the number of meals it serves annually.

“I’m not sure what I would attribute it to, but I mean the last three years we’ve seen pretty substantial growth. There’s a pretty steady pattern of growth that’s kind of exploded since 2013,” said the organization’s Tyler Gray.

He explained in 2013 Carmichael served about 37,000 meals. That number rose to 52,000 in 2014. The year after that 56,000 meals were served.

So far, this year is on pace to serve upwards of 65,000 meals.

Gray believes the economic downturn is reshaping who needs their help.

“The economy’s really shifted the scope of the number of people, and type of people, that come into the organization so, where before we might have had just people who are maybe experiencing homelessness coming in, now we’ve got a lot of newcomers, seniors on fixed incomes, single parent families. The demographic has really changed,” he explained.

Carmichael served between 400 and 500 Easter meals on Thursday, consisting of turkey, potatoes and pie.