Inflation impacting back-to-school shopping for Montreal families and charities
Posted August 2, 2023 4:40 pm.
Last Updated August 2, 2023 7:18 pm.
The start of August means back to school shopping is top of mind for parents, but with the increase in prices due to inflation, some Montreal parents are not able to afford the necessary supplies.
“It’s a total nightmare …families are getting at a point where they have to choose literally between paying the rent and buying food…school supplies is way back down the list of priorities,” says Audrey Renaud, the general manager of Regroupement Partage.
Regroupement Partage has been running their back to school program titled Operation Sacs à dos for close to 21 years now (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)
But this year poses a new problem. Alongside parents, some organizations are also struggling to meet demand.
“This year, unfortunately, we’re only going to be helping 7000 children,” says Renaud, she adds “it’s still quite a decent number, but based on the actual needs, it’s not even close to meeting the needs that there are right now.”
Audrey Renaud, the general manager of Regroupement Partage standing infront of some supplies that are part of their back to school program. (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)
Regroupement Partage has been running their back to school program titled Operation Sacs à Dos for close to 21 years now, their program has been full since mid-July.
According to Renauld, prices for backpacks have risen 18 per cent and school supplies have seen an average increase of 17 per cent. Because of this, the number of those in need has doubled since last year, and while they are looking to help 7,000 kids, that’s only 15 per cent of those in need. “It’s a shame that we can’t help everyone,” Renauld added.
They’re not alone, Ernie Rosa the director of emergency services at Sun Youth, says even though the non-profit is set to help 1000 kids get school supplies, they aren’t able to do as much as they could in previous years.
Ernie Rosa the director of emergency services at Sun Youth (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)
“Canadians feel it Quebecers feel it, and we feel it, too, even though we’re on the end of giving.” Rosa adds, “The budgets are smaller. Inflation was up. We had to cut…we don’t put calculators. We’re not putting geometric stats this year just because our budget couldn’t handle it,” Rosa hopes families who do get these backpacks will be able to get the few supplies that are missing.
Just like Regroupement Partage, they too are faced with not only the impacts of inflation, but demand, which they say as increased.
“Being a single mom now is very difficult because of the price. Everything’s too expensive,” says a single mother at the food bank operated by Sun Youth.
Sun Youth says even though the non-profit is set to help 1000 kids get school supplies, they aren’t able to do as much as previous years (Felisha Adam, CityNews Image)
She says worries about how she will feed her child, the back to school program that the non-profit provides is something she says would help immensely.
“A program to help me with my kids that’s help me that’s really, really helped me and I would appreciate because it’s too much weight when you’re all alone,” she added.
As for if the prices will continue to rise, both groups say, it won’t get better than this.
“We’re hoping that at some point it’ll just stabilize itself and hopefully come back to a little bit more, more of a reasonable rate for us to be able to help more,” says Rosa.
