CBCnews

Food bank use

The statistic is grim: food bank use is higher than it's been in a decade and in four provinces, the number of people turning to food banks for help went up in the last year alone.

But at least one province saw a decrease in food bank use in the last year: Saskatchewan, and the reason is interesting.

Food Banks Canada believes the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement can be credited for the decrease in the number of residents lining up at food banks.

Former students received a lump sum of $10,000 in compensation and $3,000 for each additional year they were in school. More than 20,000 Saskatchewanians qualified for the lump sum payments which began to be disbursed earlier this year.

Julie Grenier