Pay your bills or buy groceries? These are the hard choices as food insecurity rises in northwestern Ontario

Veronica Hillyard says she only went to the grocery store four times last year, because when faced with the choice between paying her bills or filling up her fridge, something had to give.

"I've always paid my bills, and of course, if I don't, I might lose my home. Buying groceries? I don't have that option, really," said the Thunder Bay senior.

"Sometimes you have to understand that you have to buy something because you can't sleep. If you're hungry, it's impossible to get to sleep."

It's a situation more people are finding themselves in as food insecurity continues to rise across northwestern Ontario. 

The cost to feed a family of four in the Thunder Bay District Health Unit's catchment area was about $1,200 a month in 2023, up 15 per cent from the previous year.

For those in the Northwestern Health Unit's catchment area, which includes part of the Kenora district and the entire Rainy River district, it's around $1,400 a month, a nine per cent increase over 2022. 

"I think I was more surprised that it wasn't higher," said Kim McGibbon, a public health nutritionist with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.

Public health units in Ontario are required to produce annual reports to assess the affordability of food in their regions. In these reports, food affordability is measured using a tool called the nutritious food basket, which includes about 60 staple food items.

The general rule of thumb is that people shouldn't spend more than 15 per cent of their income on food that meets their nutritional needs; however, a family of four in the Thunder Bay district that relies on Ontario Works spends roughly 43 per cent of their income on food, McGibbon said.

Female-led homes with children under age 18, Black and Indigenous people and other people of colour face higher rates of food insecurity than the rest of the population, she added.

Michael Quibell, executive director of the Dew Drop Inn, a program that serves daily meals, said the organization is serving about 2,000 more people a month in 2024 than last year. Nearly 60 per cent of its patrons are over the age of 60.

"By the time you pay your rent, your utilities, your expenses, there's very little left for food. Food is usually the last thing bought, so that's why we see more and more people in our lineups," Quibell said.

While there have been increases to social assistance rates, and minimum wage in Ontario is set to rise from $16.55 to $17.20 an hour come October, McGibbon said it's not enough to keep up with inflation. The Ontario Living Wage Network calculates Thunder Bay's living wage at $19.80 an hour.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit's board of health is writing a letter to the federal government in support of Bill 233, said McGibbon, which would require the development of a national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income in Canada.