TORONTO -- More immigrants, university graduates, and middle-aged people are visiting food banks in the Greater Toronto Area, according to a new study.

The report released Wednesday by the Daily Bread Food Bank -- titled "Who's Hungry: Faces of Hunger" -- says food banks were visited 1,123,500 times from April 2011 to March 2012.

While that figure was slightly lower than the nearly 1.2 million visits reported a year earlier, study author Richard Matern says trips to food banks increased by 18 per cent overall in over the last four years.

The study also found that more children and adults reported going hungry at least once a week.

Gail Nyberg, the organization's executive director, said the study also shows that clients spend an average of 71 per cent of their income on shelter. If applied to the study's median monthly income of $691, that leaves less than $7 a day for food.

"It is so important as we fight for policy changes that lift people out of poverty, that we have food available," Nyberg told a news conference at the Ontario legislature.

"For every client served, there is someone out there not coming to food banks because they are not feeling comfortable."

Sima Dini, who came to Canada as a refugee from Iran, said she was grateful for the service food banks provide.

When she couldn't return to her job as an interpreter, Dini focused on part-time jobs and started a small business selling her own paintings. The recession in 2008 ended all that, and her lack of steady employment forced her into a woman's shelter.

"It becomes like a full-time job to day-in and day-out to survive on such a small amount of money," she said.

"Without that extra food we were receiving, we would not have been able to survive."

Nyberg and Matern's solution to helping someone like Dini is a monthly housing benefit for those with low income so they can afford to stay healthy. They hope it will be proposed by the Social Assistance Review of Ontario after their fall report.

"How much do we spend in this province on health because people aren't eating properly? It's not a matter of can (the government) do it, they have to," said Nyberg.

A similar program was started in Quebec with some success, and Manitoba and the Northwest Territories have already followed suit.

The Daily Bread Food Bank -- which provides food and meals to 170 agencies across the GTA -- released its report to coincide with the launch of its annual Thanksgiving Day food drive.

This year the group's goal is to raise $400,000 and collect at least 180,000 kilograms of non-perishable food for the holiday season.