Both the 2025 Who’s Hungry Report, co-released by Daily Bread Food Bank and North York Harvest Food Bank, and the 2025 HungerCount from Food Banks Canada have presented the most unsettling accounts of Canadian food insecurity to date.

Daily Bread Food Bank CEO Neil Hetherington and Food Banks Canada’s director of research Richard Matern informed The Catholic Register in separate interviews that the 2026 reports set for release in October will not be rosier.

“The situation right now, quite frankly, is dire,” said Hetherington. “It’s no wonder there are food banks across the country that are limiting the supply they can provide for food-insecure Canadians. Right now, we've got 10 million Canadians who are food insecure out of 40 million. Twenty-five per cent of our population has some level of food insecurity — that’s abhorrent. In Toronto, we are now at the stage of one-in-10 now being served by the Daily Bread Food Bank.”

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Hetherington’s observation is being seen nationwide. The Moose Jaw and District Food Bank informed the public in a Facebook statement that beginning on April 1, it would supply goods once a month instead of twice.

“While food banks have always been part of the community safety net, they were never designed to carry this level of demand long term. Across the country, organizations are being asked to fill a growing gap that requires broader, systemic solutions,” the food bank wrote.

Melissa From, a board member of Food Banks Alberta, recently told local media outlets that “we have some food banks that are having to make the decision to give less food to more people,” and “We have some folks who are having to figure out how to triage the clients that are coming to them and who needs support the most.”

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The Food Banks Canada team touched base with 5,500 food banks throughout March as the annual HungerCount offers a snapshot of how the public engages with this service. Matern said his team is hearing about the difficult choices being made on the ground and explained how these problems have mounted since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Last year is the most updated number we have, and I believe nearly half had to reduce the size of their hampers in order to reduce the visits to the food bank,” said Matern. “And that's compared to significantly less having to do that than in 2021. We have had about a quarter run out of food completely before demand was met, and that is a big jump from the 10 per cent that experienced this situation in 2021.”

The next Who’s Hungry and HungerCount reports will be the first released with Mark Carney as prime minister during the full reporting period.

One of the new immediate policy initiatives Food Banks Canada advocated for from the government elected last April, said Matern, was a food and groceries essentials benefit and “we're very pleased that was announced in January.” He suggested the expansion of the dental care program could also help in the short term to make food more affordable.

Hetherington also said he is “pleased that there's the one-time payment and there is a pretty substantive increase (year-over-year)." He added that it’s “reflective of just returning the money that low-income Canadians paid into the tax system. They're not gaining anything. They've already paid that money, and they're just receiving it back.”

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Matern and Hetherington would like to see the government work towards achieving affordable housing goals and income security reforms in the near future, as both view these measures as effective in tackling the food insecurity crisis.

They also encourage Canadians to continue supporting their local food bank with donations if they are in a position to offer aid.