'Some nights, you just don't do dinner': Toronto is becoming even more unaffordable, data confirms

As Sue-Ellen Patcheson makes her way through a local food bank picking up whatever weekly necessities her points will buy — beans, potatoes, bananas if she's lucky — her real wish is that it didn't have to exist at all.

"We really feel it's important that people know that we are grateful. We are so grateful.

"We'd be more grateful if they were put out of business," Patcheson says with a hoarse laugh.

Patcheson, who suffers from a severe anxiety disorder, makes the trip to the food bank on foot from her Toronto home once a week. In her family of five adults, four are on some form of disability support, herself included. 

Their income used to be enough to scrape by. But in 2020, Patcheson started having to rely on the food bank to supplement what she could afford.

"Some nights, you just don't do dinner," she says. "Last night was one of those nights."

WATCH | Go inside one Toronto food bank with a user who says it's busier than ever:

As grocery prices continue to rise along with inflation, Patcheson is just one of a record number of clients using Toronto-area food banks this year, many of whom have jobs but simply can't make ends meet. The food bank is a key part of making it week-to-week, but Patcheson says what people actually need are long-term solutions. 

"What we really need is livable income for everybody," she says. "Income security takes care of health insecurity, it takes care of food insecurity and it takes care of housing insecurity."

New data from the City of Toronto's Social Development, Finance and Administration division bears that reality out in stark numbers. Toronto is mandated to report on the cost of food affordability every year, but the city says the pandemic forced a pause in data collection until this past June.

Among the conclusions — something many in the city know all too well: "People with low incomes do not have enough money to cover the cost of basic expenses, including nutritious food."

The data outlines eight common income scenarios that could increase the risk of food insecurity — factors like being on social assistance, single-parent households and rental housing — and a ninth for comparison, using a median income of approximately $84,000. From there, it subtracted basic living expenses, including shelter, food, child care and transportation. 

Based on those calculations, a family of four with a full-time minimum wage earner needed 95 per cent of its income when paying a market rent, but 28 per cent for food, putting regular healthy meals very much out of reach.

Have a look at the income scenarios for yourself. Click on the red and blue tabs below to toggle between what things look like with subsidies and without: