Rising demand at food banks seen as 'canary in the coal mine' for affordability crisis

As a single mother on a fixed income, Kelly Tysick finds it harder than ever to make ends meet. Rents have jumped in her Montreal borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, making the rising cost of food nearly impossible to afford on her budget.

"I feel like it used to be affordable living, but now it's beyond belief," Tysick said during a recent visit to the Depot Community Food Centre, a local non-profit that aims to address food insecurity.

The centre provides meals three days a week and offers food baskets and other services to those in need.

Tasha Lackman, the organization's executive director, said demand tripled in the span of two years — forcing them to put a cap on new customers.

"We reached our capacity as an organization in terms of the food costs, the space that we have, the human resources that we have," she said.

They now serve roughly 1,800 families a month.

Across Canada, she pointed out, nearly one in four people experience some form of food insecurity.

"It's the canary in the coal mine," Lackman said. "It's a symbol or a symptom of a really broken system that needs to address the most vulnerable in its communities."

She added: "We need a government who is taking that seriously."

'Silent issue'

Food banks across Canada set a new record for demand in 2024, with more than two million monthly visits — nearly double the rate seen only five years prior, according to Food Banks Canada.

"It is hard to do the work of food banking and know that more and more people are coming to your doors," said Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of the organization, which represents more than 5,500 food banks and community groups.

"Many people are coming for the first time, and folks who probably never thought they'd need a food bank and to have it be sort of a silent issue during the election — it's challenging for us, to be honest," she said.

Food Banks Canada is calling on the federal parties to commit to reducing food insecurity by half by 2030.

Food prices, meanwhile, continue to rise. The Food Price Report, an independent annual analysis by four Canadian universities, predicted food prices could increase by three to five per cent this year compared to 2024 — higher than the Bank of Canada's inflation target of between one and three per cent.

"What we're encountering right now is a problem where food inflation is bigger than general inflation," said Pascal Thériault, an economist and agronomist at McGill University.

"We perceive food as going up at a higher rate than everything else, and consumers are right when they claim that food prices are going up faster because they are."

The trade war with the United States is likely to make things worse, Theriault said. Already, consumer price index data indicates a slight increase in food prices. In March, the latest month available, the year-over-year price increase had risen to 3.2 per cent, up from 2.8 per cent in February, according to Statistics Canada.

WATCH | How could the federal government help make life more affordable?

What does a rising cost of living mean to Canadians, and how could the federal government help?

2 hours ago

Duration 3:09

While some Canadians are trying to buy local, many are simply buying what they can afford, and hoping something can be done to curb the rising costs of basic necessities.

Not just about food prices

The cost of food is only part of the reason why food banks have seen such a spike in demand, Beardsley noted.

"Food insecurity is actually not in general about food, it's about incomes and affordability," she said.

"In nearly every region of this country, housing has become too much of an expense, so people are forced to choose between whether they pay their rent this month or whether they put food on the table for their families."

In particular, her group called on the next government to address the housing crisis, improve assistance for workers on low incomes and "rebuild Canada's social safety net."

Lackman stressed that "not everybody is touched equally by the affordability crisis. And so people who are living on minimum wage or on fixed incomes are the hardest hit."

"If governments are taking affordability seriously, then some of these issues get addressed. The programs like employment insurance need to be overhauled and upgraded," she said.

What the federal parties are promising

When it comes to food prices and affordability, here's some of what the main federal parties are proposing. (See our full platform tracker for a complete rundown.)

• The Liberals have promised to invest in greenhouses, hydroponics, fisheries and financial support programs for farmers. They would also trim one percentage point off the lowest income tax bracket.

• The Conservatives have said they would address the rising cost of living by building more homes, cutting taxes and easing on the lowest income tax bracket from 15 per cent to 12.75 per cent.

• The NDP has promised to enforce a mandatory "grocery code of conduct" that would regulate pricing practices, empower the Competition Bureau to act as a grocery price watchdog and tax the windfall profits of major grocery retailers.

• The Greens would also apply a 15 per cent "excess profit tax" on grocery chains. It has also prioritized building more social housing.

• The Bloc Québécois wants to increase old age security payments and improve child benefits to address affordability.