Nearly 7M Canadians struggling to put food on the table: report

A new report by Food Banks Canada paints a bleak national picture, with most provinces receiving a grade in the D-range when it comes to tackling poverty.

Nearly seven million Canadians are struggling to put food on the table as the cost of living and housing crisis continues to bite, according to a new report.

Food Banks Canada released its inaugural poverty report on Tuesday that painted a bleak national picture, with most provinces receiving a grade in the D-range when it comes to tackling poverty.

The report found that more than 42 per cent of the population feels financially worse off compared with last year, 18 per cent is coping with food insecurity, and almost one-third also said they have an inadequate standard of living.

At least 2.8 million Canadians are living in poverty, which has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation, among other contributing factors, Food Banks Canada said in its report.

“Our country needs a collective and concerted effort from all levels of government to ensure that poverty growth not only slows down but actually reverses course so that we can get Canada to a place where no one is forced to turn to a food bank to make ends meet,” the report said.

In recent years, the demand has risen sharply at food banks in Canada.

A previous report from Food Banks Canada released last year showed an all-time high of nearly 1.5 million visits to food banks across the country in March 2022.

In its new report, Food Banks Canada graded each jurisdiction based on experiences of poverty, measurements of poverty, standard of living and government legislation.