Canada’s food banks hit a record 2.35 million monthly visits this year, as many Canadians were forced to choose between food and other basic needs, said Food Banks Canada in a new report.
The number of visits is up nearly nine per cent over the past year and a 117 per cent increase since 2019, according to its annual research, which covers over 5,500 food banks and community organizations.
“[This] is the story of what happens when millions of people are out of options,” said Food Banks Canada chief executive Kirstin Beardsley.
Beardsley said Canada’s bleak new reality is that millions of people are making impossible trade-offs every day as they choose between food or rent.
In the report, Food Banks Canada said 18 per cent of current food bank clients are employed, compared to just over 12.2 per cent in 2019.
Furthermore, 32.5 per cent of food bank clients are children, representing nearly 776,000 monthly visits in 2026. Meanwhile, single-person households remain the most common household type accessing food banks in Canada.
Ontario recorded the most food banks monthly visits at 846,724, followed by Quebec at 785,889.
The organization said the numbers reflect years of mounting pressure on household finances as rising housing costs , insufficient housing supply, food inflation , economic uncertainty and inadequate income supports eroded Canadians’ financial resilience.
Since 2021, food prices have increased by about 30 per cent, housing costs by 28 per cent and transportation costs by nearly 24 per cent.
People with the lowest incomes spend on average 60 per cent of their disposable income on housing alone, it said.
Food Banks Canada urged the government to double the Canada Workers benefit and raise the income eligibility threshold to at least the poverty line.
It also called on the government to remove barriers to the disability tax credit .
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