Heat, rent, grocery bills pushing new families to food banks across Newfoundland and Labrador

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. -- Among persistently high need, food bank operators in Newfoundland and Labrador are beginning to see a new trend at their doorsteps: full-time workers struggling to make ends meet.

There has been a surge in those clients at the Single Parents Association of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John’s, according to executive director Danielle Seward.

“In the last 12 months in particular, it’s taken a significant spike,” she said.

“A lot of the folks that are coming here, they almost have a sense of shame which is terrible, really,” Seward continued. “Because they’ve been in what you would consider a secure job or a secure profession.”

That increase is beginning to reverse a trend for food banks in Newfoundland and Labrador, who have long seen relatively few working families knocking on their doors.

According to reports by Food Banks Canada published in 2024 and 2023, Newfoundland and Labrador’s food banks had few clients with job income — about 9 per cent both years.

That was significantly smaller than food banks in other regions or even in other Atlantic provinces.

Food Banks in Prince Edward Island reported that 37.4 per cent of their clients had employment income. In Quebec, it was 20 per cent.

‘It’s the cost of living’

Tina Bishop, a long-time general manager of the Community Food Sharing Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, said the new trend has been picked up by food bank staff across the province.

“Incomes are just not keeping up with the increases that people are facing in their day to day lives,” Bishop said. “It’s the cost of living.”

The extra costs are putting more strain on families, food banks, and on the Community Food Sharing Association’s behind-the-scenes provincial food distribution network.

“People are dealing with these hefty heat bills… how do you keep up with that?” she asked. “The only place that people have to draw from, really, is their grocery budget.”

The majority of Newfoundland and Labrador residents are dealing with higher electricity bills this winter, due to a 7 per cent increase in power rates that came into effect in July 2025.

According to data compiled by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, rent costs are rising too. St. John’s has seen a nearly $100 monthly increase in average apartment rent price between October 2024 and October 2025.

Rising demand does not seem to have slowed at food banks across Newfoundland and Labrador, even if some of the other immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have.

According to Food Banks Canada’s Hunger Count 2025 report, visits in Newfoundland and Labrador rose 8 per cent year over year, higher than the Canadian average of 5.15.

Seward said there are many reasons for the new trend at the province’s food banks, and no single answer to appease demand.

“As a society, and as federal and provincial governments, we need to come together and talk about what the steps are we need to take, to get to that point.”