Toronto is in the midst of its second food insecurity crisis in three years. In the first crisis—the COVID-19 pandemic—millions of people lost their jobs virtually overnight. Now in the second crises—food price inflation—working individuals and families are seeing their basic human rights violated as food becomes increasingly unaffordable.
In response, the federal government has earmarked just half a percent of the new $497 billion budget to helping people deal with rampant price inflation. The proposed one-time tax rebate will amount about the cost of 1-2 weeks of groceries for one person and will be sent to only the lowest-income Canadians.
The provincial response is worse: service cuts and regressive tax measures that increase costs for ordinary people. The federal and provincial governments are not doing nearly enough to reverse rising food insecurity.
Three years ago, the pandemic sharply increased food insecurity in Ontario (see Figure 1). While the business closures and the restrictions against travel and large gatherings undoubtedly saved thousands of lives and kept our healthcare system from collapsing, the loss of employment across the province caused many families to become food insecure.
Figure 1. Monthly New Visits to the Stop’s Food Bank
Fortunately, this initial increase in food insecurity was quickly and decisively mitigated by the federal government, which issued social assistance payments of various kinds, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). At The Stop, we experienced this shift as a sharp drop in new visits to the food bank (see Figure 1). These benefits clearly kept the crisis from becoming a far greater disaster.
Emergency federal assistance was so effective, it ended up raising the incomes of some of the poorest people living in Canada. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, child poverty was cut in half in 2020 as a result of these policies, while the overall poverty rate dropped 40% (according to Canada’s official poverty rate measure).
Unfortunately, these measures were all terminated by the government in a roll back of social support—beginning with the CERB in October of 2020 and ending with the employment insurance extension in 2022. This rollback, combined with rising inflation, is having concrete and devastating effects. As food inflation accelerated in late 2021, new food bank visits began to rise at a steady pace, reaching the point where 150 new visits per month is the new ‘normal’. This new rate reflects a doubling—an increase of almost 100% from the monthly average prior to the pandemic (2015-2019).
Rising Costs
While the first crisis was caused by a sudden increase in unemployment, the second is being caused by the rising price of food. A recent Feed Ontario Hunger Report notes that rising food costs are doubly harmful from the standpoint of food insecurity, because they erode the ability of food banks to provide food at the same time as they increase the demand for their services. This amounts to a “perfect storm for food banks,” as Feed Ontario reports that in 2022, two out of three food banks experienced a “noticeable decrease” in food donations, while one in five has had to reduce food purchases.
Our data confirms that food inflation is having a serious impact on food insecurity. In 2022, the number of new visits to the food bank was 86% higher than the 2015-2019 average, and 5.7% higher than in 2020. While 45% of new visits in 2020 occurred in just three months, every month in 2022 saw over a hundred new visits—that’s more than 100 new food insecure households every month. And it hasn’t slowed down yet.
Figure 2. Annual New Visits to The Stop’s Food Bank
In contrast to the emergency measures of 2020, the government has done very little about rising prices and insufficient income. Ontario Works, a form of unemployment benefit, has not been raised since 2018, and remains at a terribly inadequate $733 per month. The Ontario Disability Support Program has risen only 5% since 2018, while Ontario’s Consumer Price Index has increased 14% in the same period. Due to inflation, all of Ontario’s social assistance programs have experienced cuts in terms of purchasing power.
Additionally, there is evidence that large corporations in the food sector are profiting from, or even contributing to food price inflation. Executives of Metro Inc., Loblaws Co. Ltd., and Empire Company Ltd. (owner of Sobeys and Farm Boy stores) were called to Parliament to answer questions about their role in the food affordability crisis. Not only did these grocery stores book record profits in 2022, they also significantly increased their profit margins—the gap between companies’ costs and what we pay. DT Cochrane, an economist for Canadians for Tax Fairness, reports that for every dollar’s worth of food at the grocery store, Loblaws now adds almost 50 cents to the price above their own costs. Cochrane estimates that “if the grocery giant had maintained its 2019 markup, Canadians would have saved almost $900 million.” He argues for the government to enact a new ‘windfall profits’ tax, the revenue from which could be used to fund increases in the social safety net like those terminated last year.
We alone cannot solve the broader social crises underlying food insecurity.
Here at The Stop, we experience a microcosm of much larger economic and social forces. Our food bank data clearly reflects the changing landscape of food insecurity in Toronto, but also across Ontario. However, as a food bank, we can only do our best to serve the community members who walk through our doors with the limited resources at our disposal. Whether it’s urging the government to expand social services and assistance, or holding corporations accountable for price gouging, these solutions need broad public support and mass collective political pressure.
Written by our Foodbank Support Worker, Christopher Mouré.