OTTAWA — The cost of living has become a “critical issue” as more young people are relying on food banks to eat, the Department of Agriculture says. In fact, 10 % of the population in the Greater Toronto Area uses a food bank.
New federal data yesterday showed the rising price of food continues to outpace the general inflation rate since 2024, according to the Blacklock’s Reporter.
The June 22 briefing note, Food Prices And Food Security, stated that “affordability remains a critical issue for Canadians with food prices rising faster than overall inflation for the 21st consecutive month.” The citation referred to April data.
New Statistics Canada figures, also released yesterday, showed grocery prices for the month of June rose 3.9 % year over year, while the general inflation rate stood at 2.8 %.
The Agriculture Department also acknowledged that users who rely on charity to eat are no longer exclusively unemployed, Blacklock’s Reporter reported. “About 40 % of households using food banks rely on social assistance as their main source of income,” said Food Prices. “However the share of households who rely on employment income has risen since the pandemic.”
The note estimated more than a quarter of Canadians are unable to keep up with food prices: “25.5 % of people, or 10 million, reported living in food insecure households,” it said. The figure was drawn from Canadian Income Surveys.
Blacklock’s Reporter also reported that the memo was written following May 28 testimony at the Commons finance committee that 10 % of Greater Toronto Area residents ate at a food bank. “Last year visits to food banks in Toronto reached a record of 4.1 million visits,” said Neil Hetheringon, CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank, calling these numbers “staggering”. “For context, it took us 28 years to get to 1,000,000 visits, two years to get to 2,000,000 visits, one year to get to 3,000,000 visits and here we are now at 4,100,000 visits. We now feed 1 in 10 Torontonians.”
When Conservative MP Connie Cody (Cambridge, Ont.) asked Hetheringon on whether he observed a change in the demographics, Hetheringon pointed to an unusual pattern.
“The one I think is most alarming is that the highest growth rate right now is individuals between 19 and 44,” said Hetherington. “60% of them have a postsecondary education and 50% of them have full time employment. They’ve done everything right. They went to school, they got a job.”
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Food Banks Canada in a 2025 report to the Commons human resources committee said that “28% of young adults said they skipped a meal due to lack of money and 20% had accessed food from a community organization at no cost, nearly double the rate for the general population.” “These indicators point to a heightened level of economic strain among youth,” said the Food Banks Canada Brief.
