‘Needing help is scary,’ says small business owner who is fighting stigma around using food banks

Miranda Mirlycourtois, 34, looks directly at the camera and makes a confession.

“I am one of the tens of thousands of Manitobans that has accessed a food bank through Harvest Manitoba this past year,” she says in a video posted to the Instagram account for Tan Mommy Glow Co., her small spray-tan business in Winnipeg.

In the video, she goes on to encourage her customers to donate a non-perishable item to Harvest — items that could theoretically end up back on her table. 

She says she wanted to make it to show others who the food bank network’s users really are.

“I said, ‘What if I just shared it one time,'” Mirlycourtois told CBC. “What if I made … [a video to say], ‘Hey, a Harvest recipient looks like me.'”

Mirlycourtois, a single mother to a 10-year-old daughter, got her first food hamper from Harvest Manitoba eight years ago.

“I felt relief, honestly — that was the biggest feeling…. Things have changed over the years, but back then it was like, this is a lot of food. This will definitely get us by.”

According to Harvest Manitoba’s 2025 Voices report — an annual report that looks at who is relying on the non-profit’s food banks — up to 60,000 Manitobans access a food bank each month. 

I think people don’t realize how close they are to maybe needing help one day.– Miranda Mirlycourtois

Mirlycourtois knew that was an option for her family, because she remembers her mother getting food from Harvest around Christmas time.

“She was a stay-at-home mom, and then when she was a single mom, I saw it, because I was 14 at the time. She was always open with us. We always knew.”

While she doesn’t need to pick up a hamper every month, Mirlycourtois says the rising cost of living is stretching her budget.  

“It’s almost like anger. Because it’s so unfair that we’re all working full-time jobs. We’re doing our absolute best,” she said.

“And then sometimes I feel like it’s almost like anxiety around grocery shopping. I’ll put everything [in my cart], and then I’m taking things out.”

‘Affordability is hitting the working poor’: CEO

According to Harvest’s annual report, Mirlycourtois’s experience isn’t unique. 

Around 30 per cent of households that access its services are employed, and 60 per cent of clients use food banks as a safety net when they can’t make ends meet.

“That’s been a long-term trend,” said Harvest Manitoba CEO and president Vince Barletta.

“It just goes to show that that affordability is hitting the working poor and people with jobs across the board.”

In a 2024 Statistics Canada survey, almost half (45 per cent) of respondents said rising prices were “greatly affecting” their ability to make ends meet. That number was up from 33 per cent two years earlier.

Jesse Hajer, an associate professor of economics and labour studies at the University of Manitoba, says inflation and a rising cost of living disproportionately affect people who earn less. 

“Those at the highest end of the income distribution actually were better off,” he said.

“Yes, they experienced a rise in prices of the things they bought. But they saw their incomes go up even more. It’s the opposite for the people on the lower end of the income spectrum.” 

Government strategies like tax cuts, such as the province’s 2024 gas tax “holiday,” only benefit those who have more money to spend, said Hajer.

Harvest Manitoba’s annual report says 65 per cent of households who access food banks in the province earn less than $20,000 per year, while the living expenses of households averaged over $1,600 per month.

Hajer wants to see more programs that are indexed to inflation and targeted to low-income households.

“I would hope governments would respond to this with more support for those who need it the most.” 

‘Success for me looks different’

Harvest’s 2025 report recommends more investment in social assistance, and asks the government to consider implementing a “liveable basic needs benefit” — an adjustment to the current employment and income assistance program that would be “unconditional, indexed to inflation and … provide an income sufficient for a person’s basic needs,” the report says.

Mirlycourtois says she’s felt a stigma surrounding food bank users, especially around people like her who have jobs, which is why she’s sharing her story.

“Needing help is scary. And I think people don’t realize how close they are to maybe needing help one day,” Mirlycourtois said. 

“If I can be open and honest about my journey, if I can help another single mom, if I can help another family struggling, if I can help anybody, really, that’s the goal.” 

This December, she’s happy she won’t need to go to a food bank. But she never knows when that could change.

“Success for me looks different,” she said. 

“It doesn’t look like the new car and the house. It’s really stability. It’s not having that anxiety at the grocery store, maybe. You know? 

“It’s that feeling of rent’s due and I didn’t even flinch.”