Hamilton food programs facing triple threat of sky-high demand, higher food prices and fewer donations

In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.

In 2021, the pantry served about 100 families per month. Now, it serves about 450 families a month, she said.

“After the first year I was here, [need] was up 112 per cent,” said Simmonds, the Wentworth Street North organization’s operations manager. “Then it was up 62 per cent the next year… Our resources were really stretched.”

Around a year ago, the centre decided to focus its services to residents of the lower city, drastically reducing the number of people eligible to use the pantry, which stocks dry goods, household products and toiletries. That way, they could be closer to meeting the needs of each food bank user.

And still, the centre saw an increase in usage this past year, although a much smaller one at 5 per cent, said Simmonds.

“The demand just keeps growing,” she told CBC Hamilton in late November. “Housing costs are up, the cost of groceries is going up. It all plays a factor.”

Many people who used to buy items to donate are no longer doing so, she said, because they are struggling themselves. The rising cost of food means it requires even more donations to pay to fill the shelves.

Public Health Ontario estimates that more than 28 per cent of Hamilton households are food insecure, higher than most other cities and areas in the province.

Feed Ontario puts that number at 21 per cent, adding that Hamilton has slightly more residents who are considered low-income than the provincial average.

The use of food banks in Hamilton has increased by 50 per cent since 2021, with food banks in the city seeing more than 418,725 total visits last year, according to Hamilton Food Share, which provides food and support for 22 “hunger relief” programs across the city. 

The organization’s most recent annual impact report, covering the period from April 2024 to March 2025, says 611 Hamiltonians a day reached out to a food bank in that period, with 33 per cent saying the cost of food was the reason for their visit.

“In March 2025 alone, 615 people turned to emergency food programs for the first time,” it says. “Hunger is no longer a marginal issue; it’s a daily reality for thousands in our community.”

The report indicates that payments from government programs intended to provide income are not high enough for people to afford adequate food, with recipients of disability benefits and Ontario Works making up well over half of all food bank users in this city.

Recipients of Old Age Pension and Employment Insurance were also represented among food bank users.