The Greater Toronto Area is marking Canada's fifth annual Hunger Awareness Day with a sharp increase of 15 per cent in the number of people using food banks in its municipalities.

A report from the Daily Bread Food Bank says 1,187,000 people visited food banks between April 2009 and March of this year, the largest one-year increase since social assistance rates were cut by more than 21 per cent in the mid-1990s.

The document shows individuals and families who visit food banks are spending an average of 68 per cent of their income on rent and utilities, leaving little for much else.

Executive director Gail Nyberg tells CP24 that the jump from eight percent last year to 15 per cent this year shows many people have "hit a wall."

"They have exhausted employment insurance, they spent all of their assets they may have had, and now they're qualifying for assistance," she says.

"They're so far down in a hole that they're having to come to food banks."

Nyberg says it will be impossible to reduce poverty if something isn't done about the cost of housing in the city.

According to Health Canada's Nutritious Food Basket, an individual needs $309 a month in order to meet proper nutritional needs.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that 46 per cent of visitors have either lost their jobs or have had their hours reduced at work.

Nyberg says people are coming from all walks of life.

"It can be anybody…I ran into a couple, who both mom and dad had lost jobs – both fairly good jobs about a year and a half ago and now they've exhausted everything," she says.

"They never expected that they would be at a food bank."

Nyberg says it's important for people to recognize that hunger is just not something of the third world.

"Like in third world countries where it's a shortage of food, in Canada it's a shortage of income and money to purchase that food. There is no shortage of food."

The food bank is meeting the current high demand, but says it's a "hard go" and will continue to be if numbers don't begin to subside.

One of the even more alarming statistics to come of the "The Hunger Snapshot" released on Monday is that 34 per cent of visitors to food banks in the GTA are children.

Nyberg says the number is much higher for Toronto, because singles tend to gravitate to the core of the city. The average for children in Ontario is 40 per cent.

Many food companies have joined the awareness campaign with promotions.

Campbell Canada will be donating up to 100,000 cans of vegetable soup to food banks across Canada, while Kraft Canada will match donations dollar-for-dollar of up to $150,000 until June 11.

To find out more about how you can donate, visit the Daily Bread Food Bank website.