Local food bank operators are shaking their heads after a CTV News hidden camera investigation found some items intended for the hungry are instead being sold on the streets.
Video shot earlier this month at the street market in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside captured a man trying to sell a plastic bag full of food for cash.
"It's fresh," the seller said of the groceries, which included bananas, oranges, milk and rice. Asked where it all came from, the man replied, "It's from my food bank, man."
It's unclear which food bank the products came from. The Greater Vancouver Food Bank said it occasionally hears of people selling some of the items it gives away, but CEO Aart Schuurman Hess was hesitant to pass judgment.
"When I hear that, I find it very, very unfortunate," Hess said, noting that some Vancouver residents are forced to skip meals just to make ends meet.
"We do know that families and individuals are sometimes scrambling for dollars just to pay their rents, so they're selling food just to sustain themselves."
Hess said the people selling food bank items represent just a drop in the bucket of the roughly 26,500 people his organization feeds every week.
"Most people that access the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, they really need that food," he told CTV News.
The seller captured on camera on Hastings Street, in an area where police estimate $50,000 in stolen goods is exchanged daily, said he had "food at home" but was in need of money. He didn't specify what he needed the money for.
Jeremy Hunka of the Union Gospel Mission, which also runs a food bank, said while some such sellers could be "outrageously taking advantage of goodwill," things aren’t always so black-and-white.
"People tend to things they would never otherwise consider if they feel they don't have another option,” Hunka said.
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank said there's not much it can do to prevent such behavoiur in either case, and it wouldn't be interested in anything that would make its users feel scrutinized.
"We've made the barrier as low as possible," Hess said. "We provide dignity and respect to our members."
With files from CTV Vancouver's St. John Alexander
