Hunger
Household food insecurity is the inadequate or
insecure access to food due to financial constraints.
Almost half of the food-insecure households in Canada consist
of unattached individuals, living alone or with others.
Over 60%, of food-insecure households are relying on wages and salaries as their main source of income. Simply having a job is not enough; low-waged jobs and precarious work means people in the workforce often don’t have enough income to be food-secure.
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1 in 7
Nearly five million people in Canada – that’s one out of every seven individuals – currently live in poverty
Poverty is a widespread issue across the country and the world, but vulnerable groups such as people living with disabilities, single parents, elderly individuals, youth, and racialized communities are more susceptible.
The Impact of Poverty
Food Insecurity
- Residents in Nunavut spend twice as much on food as the rest of the country on average ($14,800 v. $7,300 annually).
- 4 million people in Canada experience food insecurity.
- 1 in 8 Canadian households struggle to put food on the table.
- In 2014, the majority of food insecure households – 62.2% – were reliant on wages or salary from employment.
- 8 out of 10 provinces saw an increase in food bank usage in 2016.
- 62% of children living in the North are food insecure.
- By end of 2018, 501,590 individuals accessed a food bank in Ontario.
- More than one-third of food bank users across Canada were children in 2016.
- 37% of clients served at Orangeville Food Bank are children.
- More than 10,500 lbs of food are distributed each month through our Food Bank.
- Last year 141,000 pounds of community donations were received by the Food Bank.
- In 2018, there was an increase of 7% in family use over the previous year
- Food bank usage across Canada is 3% higher than 2015 and 28% higher than it was in 2008.
- Food bank usage has increased in all provinces since 2008, apart from Newfoundland and Labrador.
- In Canada, 2% of food bank users are Indigenous.
Myth:
Hunger happens somewhere else
it doesn’t exist near me.
Hunger may be closer than you think. Hunger exists in every Canadian city—including ours. In fact, Canadians visited Food Banks nearly 1.1 million times in March 2019.
Between April 1st, 2018 and March 31st, 2019, Ontario’s food banks were accessed by 510,438 individuals that visited more than 3,059,000 times throughout the year.
Hunger isn’t always obvious—but it exists all around us.
POVERTY COSTS CANADA BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ANNUALLY
Precarious employment has increased by nearly 50% over the past two decades.
The effects of poverty can be expressed in different aspects of a person’s life, including food security, health, and housing.
