Toronto’s Food Bank Visits Top 4M, Hitting ‘Devastating’ New Record: Report

Volunteers work at the Food Banks Canada distribution centre in Toronto on Oct. 24, 2024. The Canadian Press/Chris Young

The number of food bank visits in Toronto surpassed 4 million between March 2024 and April 2025, with children and youth accounting for one out of every four clients, according to a new report.

“Almost a year after the City of Toronto declared a food insecurity state of emergency, we’ve reached a devastating new milestone: over 4.1 million food bank visits in the past year,” reads the “Who’s Hungry” report released on Oct. 27.

“It was only five years ago that the number was below 1 million.”

The report, released as a joint effort between two Toronto food banks, said the number of visits increased from 3.49 million in 2024, to 4.12 million in 2025. The report compiled by Daily Bread Food Bank and North York Harvest Food Bank said many clients have multiple jobs and post-secondary degrees, but are still unable to afford food.

The report indicated that although there was a “surge” in the number of new food bank clients in the Toronto region from 2021 to 2024, this year has seen them “relying on food banks more frequently, and for longer periods of time.”

Food bank usage in the city has increased by 340 percent since 2019 and, for the second consecutive year, more than one in 10 Torontonians have relied on food banks, up from one in 20 just four years ago, the report found.

Children now make up a total of 25 percent of all Toronto-area food bank clients, and 18 percent of households with children reported that their kids went hungry at least once a week over the last three months, up from 13 percent last year.

Eighty-two percent of the 1,890 households surveyed for the report said they did not have enough food to eat in the past year, while 34 percent reported that an adult in their household went an entire day without eating. The data presented in the report also includes the survey of 73 Toronto-based member agencies and meal programs between March 2024 and April 2025.

When food bank visitors were asked about their reasons for using the bank, 96 percent attributed it to the increasing cost of living. Fifty-three percent also reported delayed wages, while 47 percent mentioned low wages, 31 percent cited unemployment, 22 percent reported relocation, and 14 percent indicated their benefits had been altered.

The report noted that while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and overall food inflation have eased in recent months, food prices are continuing to rise faster than the general rate of inflation. Statistics Canada’s September CPI report said consumers paid 4 percent more for food year-over-year in September, while the CPI rose by 2.4 percent on an annual basis the same month.

A 2024 report by Feed Ontario found nearly 40 percent of food banks in the province had been forced to reduce the amount of food they provide to customers because of a surge in demand and fewer donations. Food Banks Alberta and Food Banks B.C. previously told The Epoch Times in 2024 they had seen a decrease in donations to food banks, both from individual donors and corporations. This has led to the food banks rationing the food they give out to individuals, many of whom have full-time jobs but are still struggling financially.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre addressed the issue during debate in the House of Commons on Oct. 27, saying there has been a 100 percent increase in the number of people relying on food banks since the Liberals came to power a decade ago.

Liberal House Leader Steven MacKinnon responded that the government is focusing on four key areas to address the issue, including benefits for people with disabilities, providing dental care, offering meal programs in schools, and supporting the national housing strategy, which he said were “all programs that the Conservatives voted against.”

The Liberals have said that in the upcoming Nov. 4 budget, the national school food program will be made permanent, which will provide meals for up to 400,000 Canadian children.

Poilievre said that Liberal programs “feed bureaucracy, lobbyists, consultants and insiders, but they do not feed kids,” and that Canadian families have seen their paycheques “vaporized by Liberal taxes and inflation.”

“It took decades to reach one million visits to food banks in a month, but just half a decade to more than double that,” he said.