What to know
- Record demand: Toronto food banks saw more than 4.1 million visits this year — 636,000 more than last year and 340 per cent higher than in 2019.
- Daily Bread’s CEO says food prices, unaffordable housing and inadequate income supports remain the key forces pushing people into food banks.
- Nearly half of food bank users live in households with at least one employed person, signalling a widening gap between wages and living costs.
- Food banks face soaring operational pressures, with Daily Bread’s food budget jumping from $1.5M to $29M.
Toronto has hit a new record of residents relying on food banks, a new report says, and one local food bank says the solution to ending food insecurity might lie in social benefits and affordable housing.
The Daily Bread’s Who’s Hungry 2025 report reveals there were over 4.1 million visits to food banks over the past year, which is 636,000 more than in 2024, marking a new concerning record for food insecurity in the city.
The new numbers come nearly a year after Toronto city council declared food insecurity an emergency in Toronto on Dec. 17, 2024 after a report revealed that food banks served 3.49 million visits between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, with one in 10 Torontonians relying on food banks.
Across Ontario, other cities also followed suit, with Mississauga, Kingston, and Orillia also declaring an emergency between 2024 and 2025.
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Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington tells Now Toronto that he was surprised to see that the declaration in fact inspired action by the city, which has been leading a series of helpful initiatives.
“When Toronto [declared the emergency], there was a natural concern, would this be performative? Would this just be a symbolic action? And the answer is: no, it was an opportunity for the city to be able to articulate very, very clearly to the province and to the country that we have a problem,” he said on Friday.
Since the declaration, city council has been requesting the provincial and federal governments to take action, including:
- Enhancing income security programs, including Employment Insurance, Old Age Security, Canada Child Benefit, Canada Disability Benefit, Ontario Works, and Ontario Disability Support Program;
- Promoting quality job opportunities and living wages;
- Investing in building and maintaining affordable housing.
In addition, the city has also launched applications for a Student Nutrition Program, which will provide nutritious meals and snacks to children in schools, serving up to 230,000 students starting next year.
WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THEN?
Nearly a year since food insecurity was first declared an emergency, Toronto has set yet another concerning milestone.
This year, the number of visits to food banks is 340 per cent higher than in 2019, when the report indicated about 1.070 million visits to food banks.
For Hetherington, what seems to be driving the trend is cost of living, including the lack of affordable housing, appropriate support for those with disabilities, and jobs that pay liveable wages.
“It took 38 years to get to one million client visits, and only four years to get to 4.1 million client visits to the Daily Bread Food Bank,” he said.
“If you take those three things together, you get those who are working, who are really struggling, you get those who have to drive their income from disability support that are legislated, poverty and the lack of affordable housing, those are the three things that contribute to every food bank visit.”
The increased amount of visits also creates additional challenges for the food banks, which have to keep up with the growing demand and costs.
“It’s a real challenge…As food prices rise, more people have to come to the food bank, and that means we’ve got to spend more on food. And so, our food budget, as an example, has gone from $1.5 million per year to $29 million last year. That’s how much we were spending buying food,” he said.
The sharp increase has led Daily Bread Food Bank to increase fundraising efforts and work to raise awareness in the community.
REPORT REVEALS OTHER CONCERNING TRENDS
Besides the sharp increase in the number of visits to food banks, the latest Who’s Hungry report also revealed other concerning trends in relation to food insecurity.
For the first time since 2020, the majority of food bank visits (59 per cent) came from returning clients rather than new ones, while 54 per cent of survey respondents said they visited food banks three or more times in one month, and 53 per cent said they’ve missed a meal to pay for something else.
Meanwhile, the study also found the cost of living, lack of affordable housing and access to living wages, to be some of the driving forces leading people into poverty and food insecurity, finding that:
- 96 per cent of respondents said rising costs are one of their top three reasons for visiting food banks;
- 88 per cent live in unaffordable housing, with one in five saying they spend their entire income on housing;
- 62 per cent used short-term strategies such as loans, credit, help from loved ones, and selling belongings to afford essentials;
- 19 per cent more clients are homeless now, compared to 2024;
- The median income for clients was $1,200 per month, while median housing costs were $1,200 to $1,300.
Canada is currently undergoing a job market crisis, with an unemployment rate of 6.5 per cent as of November, according to Statistics Canada. Although numbers have improved in the last few months, increasing 0.3 per cent from October, growth seems to be stagnant in Ontario, with the employment rate now at 7.3 per cent in the province.
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On the other hand, Hetherington warns that food insecurity seems to be disproportionately growing in relation to unemployment, with many still depending on food banks even though they are employed.
Besides issues finding work, the latest report also indicates that:
- 46 per cent of survey respondents said at least one person in their household has a job;
- 35 per cent of employed respondents said they have multiple jobs, and 72 per cent said they would take more hours if possible;
- 57 per cent said they hold at least a post-secondary degree or higher.
“One of the things that should frighten every Canadian is the fact that for the first time in our history, unemployment was not correlated to food bank usage,” he said.
“Instead, what happened was we had food bank usage going way up while unemployment was relatively good. So, that makes me very nervous about 2026 as we reframe our economy in response to U.S. tariffs and the unemployment rates that we can expect to have.”
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
Despite the concerning numbers revealed by the report, Hetherington highlighted some positive initiatives he has seen from the city, but says the provincial and federal governments need to collaborate to allow real improvement.
“I think that the city is trying its best. It doesn’t have a lot of tools to be able to make a dent in food insecurity, because food insecurity really is a social problem, and it’s a social problem that is really in the jurisdiction of both the province and the federal government,” he said.
While the city has been pushing for the construction of affordable housing, Hetherington said building permits and other time-consuming bureaucracy could be changed to ensure that more housing is built quicker.
In addition, the expert says the federal government should also be pushing initiatives to speed up construction, and make disability benefits easier to access.
“I was really pleased to see built Canada homes come into force, there’s $13 billion that’s going to come to develop affordable housing across the country. That’s great, and at the same time, it’s also cause for concern, because at its peak, it’s estimated to build about 400,000 houses per year…Now, we’re at 200,000 houses per year. So, we’ve got a long way to go,” he said.
With a Canada’s Food Price Report (CFPR) indicating that food prices are about to increase even more in 2026, Hetherington anticipates that even more people might be relying on food banks soon.
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“That is going to be painful. For the average family, that’s another $1,000 or so that they’ll be spending per year. $1,000 that they don’t have. And then, it’s going to come back to the soldiers of the men and women who volunteer their time here at The Daily Bread Food Bank,” he said.
“Families have got to have hope. So, what we need to offer that family is the opportunity to walk through the door of an affordable house, or the opportunity to be able to pay for their own food because they got a disability check that was adequate.”
