There’s a revealing snapshot about hunger across the country. Numbers from Food Banks Canada’s Hunger Count show food bank visits have hit a new high, with more than 2.3 million visits in March alone. Experts working with food banks across Canada said without meaningful change to policies, the demand is just going to get worse. “If we don’t make changes, we will continue to see these numbers go up,” Kim Wilhelm, Food Bank of Waterloo Region’s CEO, said. Monthly food bank visits in Canada are up nearly nine per cent this year compared to last. “It’s showing us that more people are losing their financial cushion. So, we’re seeing a greater entrenchment of the need to an extent we haven’t seen before. And that’s very concerning,” Richard Matern, Food Banks Canada’s director of research, told CTV News. According to Food Bank Canada, food bank visits are up in every province and territory, except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. The number of employed users at food banks is also up, with nearly one in five clients in Canada having jobs, an increase from around one in 10 in 2019. People with the lowest incomes spent an average of 60 per cent of their income on food, at a time when food, housing and transportation costs have all risen by up to 30 per cent. “We’re talking about choices between basic necessities. So, people are having to choose between rent and food, food and medication, food and transportation,” Matern said. Many food bank users have been forced to make those choices as salaries and social assistance programs lag behind the rate of inflation. “These are all things that individuals are forced to pay for each and every day. And incomes have not grown quickly enough to keep up,” Wilhelm said. Waterloo Region impact Waterloo Region is no exception to the trend. “This has to end, we cannot continue serving individuals at these alarming rates,” Wilhelm said. The Food Bank of Waterloo Region saw an 11 percent increase in use since last year. Nearly 621,000 people visited a local food hamper program more than once in the past year. One in three participants were children and about nine percent of users were older adults. Wilhelm said their programs are under immense pressure and are always looking at data to make sure they have what they need. “Our programs feel that they’re rushing, that they’re not able to have the same deliberate conversation with individuals that they were having,” Wilhelm explained. “We know that when somebody is accessing food assistance, there are so many reasons why; it’s a complicated program, and our programs are best suited when they can have these deliberate conversations and put together recommendations that’s going to help somebody get out of that cycle.” It’s a similar story at Cambridge Food Bank where many first-time users are coming through the doors. “No one wants to come to a food bank. The theme that we’re constantly hearing is that people are trying desperately to hold onto their housing. It’s becoming increasingly difficult, and they’re using the majority, if not all, of their income toward keeping their rental unit and utilities on,” Dianne McLeod, Cambridge Food Bank’s CEO, said. “Is there going to be a breaking point?” McLeod said in 2019, the busiest month they saw was around 800 households using the food bank. Now they’re seeing around 2,000 households each month in 2026. “Is there going to be a breaking point? And fundamentally, food insecurity is an income problem. And food banks, unfortunately, can’t solve the problem of people not having enough income. We’re all doing the very best we can to at least meet those immediate needs of hunger. And I know some other food banks have had to reduce their service hours or reduce the amount of hampers or food they’re providing,” McLeod said. “Our biggest challenge here in Cambridge is just the lack of space. Because when you’re going from a serving, 600 to 800 households a month to over 2,000 in the same space, it’s just difficult to receive and distribute the increased amount of food.” Cambridge Food Bank is moving to a larger space in 2027, but McLeod said the trend of people in need doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Call for change With no end in sight, Food Banks Canada is calling for changes to employment insurance and other forms of social assistance and for more investment in housing. “Programs that used to be there to support people like E.I. or provincial social assistance, when things go wrong, I think those programs now are not functioning the way they used to. So, more people are saying that they don’t have anything left, and they’re focused on surviving today at the expense, unfortunately, of tomorrow’s financial cushion,” Matern said. Food Banks Canada wants the government to address affordability challenges through significant investments in affordable housing and employment insurance reform to support a greater segment of the labour market. “With the ongoing threats of unemployment or rising unemployment and trade disputes and so forth. If people become unemployed and don’t have any protections, it can set off a trail of events, which leads to increase in vulnerability and food bank use in the future,” Matern said.
