BR-Hunger-Report

TORONTO — A new Food Banks Canada report says Canada’s hunger crisis is deepening.

The organization’s 2025 HungerCount report says monthly visits to food banks neared two-point-two million visits in March 2025.

That’s five per cent higher than March of last year and nearly double since before the pandemic, in March 2019.

This morning’s report examines visits to a network of 55 hundred food banks and community organizations.

Lead author Richard Matern says one-in-five visitors were working adults and nearly one-quarter were two-parent families.

One-third were children.

Food Banks Canada is calling on Ottawa to extend Employment Insurance to gig and self-employed workers, and increase the Canada Disability Benefit introduced this past July.

The national report comes as a Toronto-focused poverty study finds more than one-in-10 rely on food banks.

The Daily Bread Food Bank and North York Harvest Food Bank says need rose 18 per cent to more than four-point-one million visits in the year leading up to April 2025.

The Who’s Hungry report says the data suggests people are relying on food banks more frequently and for longer periods of time.