A Third of Toronto Food-Bank Users Work Full-Time, Says Largest Food Bank

Various brands of bread sit on shelves in a grocery store in Toronto. (The Canadian Press/Doug Ives)

Canadians with full-time salaries are having trouble affording groceries, according to testimony before a House committee studying high food prices.

The CEO of Canada’s largest foodbank said a third of the people they help in Toronto are employed full-time. “Things are upside down,” CEO Neil Hetherington of the Daily Bread Food Bank told the Commons agriculture committee March 20, as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“This is the very first time in the 40 years food banks have been in Canada that we have seen unemployment so low and food bank usage at the rates we are seeing right now,” Hetherington said.

Toronto food-bank visitors are up to 270,000 monthly from about 65,000 before the pandemic and inflation spike.

Statistics Canada shows the average retail prices for common grocery items has risen significantly since January 2020. Prices for eggs, stewing beef, chicken thighs, and white bread are all up about 20 percent. Butter is up 30 percent.

“Every day Canadians are forced to choose between healthy, nutritious food and other essentials like housing, heating, water and transportation,” testified Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest Canada of Etobicoke, Ont. “Food is a discretionary cost.”

While grocery store profits have been a topic of interest amid rising food prices, the committee heard testimony that the profit margin of Canada’s largest grocers are “unbelievably low.”

Ian Lee, an associate professor with the Sprott School of Business at Carlton University, said: “Retail grocery store net profit margins are unbelievably low … compared to the double digit profit margins in pharma, banking, beverages, automotive manufacturing, chemicals, computers, construction, electronics, entertainment, health-care products, and I haven’t touched on all of them.”

He said Loblaws, Empire (Sobeys), and Metro have profit margins of 3.7 percent, 2.7 percent, and 4.5 percent respectively.

Farmers also testified they are not to blame for high food prices. Ian Boxall, president of the Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan, said: “In 2021, Saskatchewan farmers experienced their most expensive crop ever for livestock and grain production, spending $11.5 billion on farm expenses—11 percent higher than 2020. And 2022 wasn’t any better.”

Doug Lett contributed to this report.