Just The Facts: Canadians are Desperate
Ottawa, ON – Feed Ontario released their damning Hunger Report on food bank usage between April 2024 and March 2025, and the results are terrible. After years of Liberal failures, countless Ontario families struggle to feed and house themselves.
The situation has gotten so bad that more than a million people visited a food bank in the past year – one out of every 16 Ontarians – up a staggering 87 per cent compared to 2019-2020. There were also over 8.7 million individual food bank visits, up 13 per cent from last year. That means there were 24,000 visits to food banks across the province every single day.
In Central Ontario alone, food bank visits are up 257 per cent since 2019-2020, with 140 per cent more individuals relying on them to meet their needs. This sharp increase is pushing food banks across the province to the brink: half are struggling to keep up with demand, and one third fear that they will be forced to pause, reduce or end services.
Perhaps the most concerning statistic is that close to 1 in 4 Ontario food bank users are employed, up 3.4 per cent from last year. This proves that, after reckless Liberal policies drove up the cost of everything, having a job no longer guarantees a stable and comfortable life.
Nearly 56 per cent of those surveyed named the cost of food as the reason for their visit, while a further 27 per cent cited cost of housing. The report also noted that the price of “essential expenses” outpaced the income growth workers have seen since 2019.
With food bank demand at an all-time high after rising for nine consecutive years, Feed Ontario paints a grim picture of a Canada where people are unable to get ahead: where having jobs or housing does not mean you can meet your family’s needs; where high cost of living forces parents to “skip meals so their kids can eat” while seniors are “choosing between groceries and medication”.
Canadians have sacrificed enough after a decade of crushing taxes and inflation. The Official Opposition gave the Liberals a chance to help reverse their disastrous legacy by ending the industrial carbon tax, the food packaging tax and the 17 cent/litre fuel standard that drives up the cost of our food. Mark Carney said that we should judge him by the cost at the grocery store, and with over 80% of Canadians saying food is their “top expense pressure”, it’s clear that Conservatives are bringing the real solutions.