A recent morning at the Community Share Food Bank feels more like a neighbourhood coffee shop than a lifeline for struggling families.

Shelves lined with food sit at one end of the Church of the Ascension’s gymnasium, near Don Mills Rd. and Lawrence Ave. E. At the other, free coffee and cookies are set out, and two little boys in new-looking winter coats play while their parents register.

“We try to set up like it’s family. It’s not an institution,” says Rev. Jennifer Palin of the Donway Covenant United Church, one of five churches behind the food bank. We don’t want to start just pushing people through. We want to have a sense of treating people like individual human beings.”

But a sharp rise in users, due, they believe, to an influx of Syrian refugee families to the area, has organizers worried about sustainability and has them calling on the government to review its resettlement programs.

“(The government is) treating the food bank system like it’s a paid-for social service. We’re not. We’re just volunteers trying to help out neighbours,” Palin said.

The CSFB handed out more food hampers in March than any month since it started keeping electronic records in 2009.

Palin stressed that this community supports bringing in the refugees and has raised thousands of dollars for the cause, but there is concern that small, volunteer-run, donation-dependent agencies such as theirs are left to pick up the government’s slack.

“When a whole group of people all of a sudden need the food bank, there’s a systemic issue,” she said. “We’re just starting to see issues developing. I don’t want to wait until six months from now when things have gotten worse.”

“The idea of food banks has become so institutionalized people now think they’re just there, part of the welfare system,” Palin said.

Related: Syrian refugees get taste of the long road ahead

Ann Fellin, chair of the food bank, says they had anticipated an increased need once sponsorship dollars, from both government and private sources, ran out. But people were coming “almost right away.”

The Don Mills food bank is part of a growing number of agencies across the city and the country seeing spikes, with media reports about similar concerns ranging from Surrey, B.C., to Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Gail Nyberg, executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank, says the jump between February and March was “just out of this world.” The charity saw a 20 per cent increase in visits, which means 11,000 more trips by people needing the charity's services.

The Daily Bread doesn’t collect data on the immigration status of its clients, so detailed numbers are not available, but anecdotally, many member agencies are reporting that families from Syria are “the lion’s share” of the increase, she said.

The last one-month spike close to this magnitude was in the depths of the recession recovery in 2010, when there was a 10,000-visit jump from August to September, according to Richard Matern, a senior researcher at Daily Bread. “And that still wasn’t as high as what we saw this month,” he said in an emailed statement. The charity anticipates the numbers will keep going up.

“The government isn’t meeting the needs of these people, and a number of people, non-profits and charities are trying desperately to fill the gaps, but we’re feeling a bit overwhelmed out here,” Nyberg said.

Rising food prices and a shaky economy are contributing factors, she said. “This is not pointing the fingers at the refugees. It’s like the perfect storm is happening.”

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In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the government’s resettlement partners often advise newcomer families on limited budgets to use resources such as food banks and second-hand stores.

“Food banks are a reality in many communities and are accessed by Canadians and others from all walks of life,” says the statement from spokesperson Nancy Caron. “IRCC continues to monitor the evolving nature of this issue and will take further action as appropriate to ensure refugees are able to successfully and sustainably settle in their new home communities, while also balancing fairness to others in need to ensure the best outcome possible for Canadian society as a whole.”

She did not elaborate on what actions were being considered.

Co-ordinator Khalid Mahmood says the Thorncliffe Food Bank has started offering home delivery and referring refugee families to other services, such as employment agencies. He stressed that the families need more supports across the board, from language workshops to skills bridging.

“Instead of becoming dependent on the community when they come, they are very enthusiastic, and they want to work starting tomorrow,” he said. “We have to provide them some such facilities, such type of training, so instead of spending years, from tomorrow they can just start contributing to the progress of our country.”