Food insecurity in Canada is jumping — and it’s even higher among children

Children eat a packed lunch at a park in St. Johns, N.L.

As the school year wanes and summer closes in, volunteers at the Single Parents Association of Newfoundland and Labrador prepare for a surprisingly busy time of year.

When the final school bell rings on June 26, sending children off for summer vacation, visits to the charity’s food bank will jump.

“We will see exponential numbers coming to our food bank in the next couple of months,” said Danielle Seward, the organization’s executive director. “Just looking for snacks and lunches to get through until September.”

“It’s a bit of an untold story; just how stressful the summer months can be for food-insecure single parents.”

Volunteers are busy fundraising, trying to stock the shelves for the upcoming summer rush — but it seems like the need never stops growing.

The latest data compiled by Statistics Canada showed yet another increase in the proportion of Canadians living in food-insecure households.

Data collected in 2021 showed 5.8 million Canadians qualified. Data collected in 2024 brought the statistic up to almost 10 million.

The measure can range from marginal food insecurity — worrying about running out of food or limiting selections because of money — all the way to severe food insecurity, where individuals skip meals to make ends meet.

According to the PROOF research program at the University of Toronto, the estimates are the highest in 20 years of monitoring.

Among Canadian children, the percentages are even higher. The data shows almost 2.5 million children live in food-insecure households, which is about one-third of all children in the country.

That estimate in Newfoundland and Labrador is even higher — 40 per cent — tied with New Brunswick for the highest of the 10 provinces.

In St. John’s, Seward says hunger is hitting more families than ever before, and there’s no single profile for who is likeliest to make an appointment for their services.

“It’s not just single-parent families that don’t have a solidified income,” she said. “In a lot of cases, it’s professional, working single parents.”

The diverse nature of that hungry population, she said, makes it even harder for policymakers to target spending programs.

“At one point in time, I would say that our clientele would have appreciated an increase in government support,” Seward said.

“At this time, our clientele is so diverse that — yes, we have clientele that are on income support, we have some that are on employment insurance, but we also have some that are full-time employed.”

To tackle childhood hunger, Newfoundland and Labrador is investing in a broader, province-wide school lunch program, aiming to expand the existing offering, which serves 43 schools, to more regions in the coming years.

Ashley Byrne, a coordinator with Food First NL, is leading consultation work about the planned expansion. She told CTV News the provincial government will soon issue a request for proposals to invite providers to bid for program delivery.

“These school food programs, they’re a bit of a pressure release valve,” she said. “They help make things go a little bit further at home.”

In September 2024, the federal government unveiled a national school food program policy. It wields a budget of about $1 billion over five years to work with provinces and expand local food delivery programs across the country.

The program’s national policy calls for Ottawa to work towards universal access to school food programs by expanding the pieces already put in place.

B.C. Elementary School teacher Brent Mansfield has been touring across the country, trying to advocate for bigger and richer school food programs.

He said he’s seen their success firsthand, at his own school in Vancouver, helping students come ready to learn in his classrooms, with improved ability to focus and participate in class discussions.

“When we offer school food programs in a non-stigmatizing way, they have that opportunity to be a great social equalizer,” he said.