“I couldn’t afford to pay for everything and buy food. I chose to pay rent and stay hungry.” 

These words, from a Food Banks Canada study of the wide-ranging ways that food insecurity can affect people’s lives, describe a situation that’s all too common in Canada: being forced to make impossible trade-offs. 

“It was either rent, bills, or food,” shared another study participant with experience of food insecurity. 

Food Banks Canada’s newly released 2026 HungerCount report finds that millions of people are currently struggling to afford food and other basic needs. Monthly visits to the country’s food banks rose to a devastating 2.35 million in 2026 — increasing nearly 9% over the past year and 117% since 2019. 

“Why does food bank demand continue to grow years after the pandemic ended, even as inflation has slowed and many headline economic indicators have stabilized?” asked the report, the latest instalment in an annual research study of food bank usage across the country. “The answer is that financial hardship is cumulative.” 

Since 2021, food prices have increased by approximately 30%, housing costs by 28% and transportation costs by nearly 24%. Incomes have not risen enough to keep pace. Before turning to a food bank, people typically spend months or years tightening their belts, depleting their savings, taking on debt, and putting off expenses. Over time, they exhaust these options. Financial setbacks that might once have been manageable – a car repair, a family illness, a temporary job loss – become the tipping point. And the social safety net needs long-awaited upgrades before it can reliably catch those who fall.

Food insecurity in 2026 touches people from all walks of life. Nearly one-in-five food bank clients (18%) are employed, compared to just over 1-in-10 (12.2%) in 2019. 72% are renters facing record housing costs. A third are children. 

“HungerCount 2026 is the story of what happens when millions of people are out of options,” sums up Food Banks Canada CEO Kirstin Beardsley. “But this does not have to be Canada’s story.”  

“We can invest in housing and food systems,” says Nick McRoberts, vice president of advocacy and research and Food Banks Canada. “We can provide real protection and stability to people in times of need. We can make the deliberate choice to shape a country where people must no longer face impossible choices.” 

To this end, the HungerCount 2026 report calls on governments to:   

Reform income supports to provide real support during times of need 
Global uncertainty, tariffs, and unemployment are exposing long-standing weaknesses in Canada’s income support system. Food Banks Canada recommends that we permanently modernize Employment Insurance (EI) for a modern workforce, double the Canada Workers benefit, remove barriers to the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), and conduct a Parliamentary review of the adequacy of provincial and territorial social assistance, which is the primary source of income for nearly 41% of food banks’ clients. 

Invest in critical infrastructure to build a more affordable and resilient Canada 
Housing costs devour most of the disposable income of low-income households. Food Banks Canada recommends that the federal government: 

• establish a National Housing Accord to renew and expand funding for deeply affordable, supportive, co-operative, non-profit, and public housing; 
• accelerate the construction of housing through federal land, financing, and tax measures; 
• establish explicit geography tracks within Build Canada Homes to address unique realities in urban and suburban, rural, and remote, Northern, and Indigenous communities. 

It should also direct up to $500 million from the Food-Link Fund to strategic food bank network infrastructure, to support a more resilient, domestic food network.  

Build a stronger North by investing in people and communities 
Food insecurity rates are particularly high in Northern communities. The federal government should close the Northern cost-of-living gap in the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit by including a Northern supplement, expanded eligibility thresholds, geographic adjustments, automatic indexing, and accessible delivery systems. There’s also an opportunity to reform Nutrition North Canada by creating clear affordability targets for subsidized food, strengthening public reporting, broadening eligible foods, and expanding food sovereignty initiatives. 

See more of HungerCount 2026’s main findings, dig into the details of Food Banks Canada’s policy recommendations, or read the full HungerCount 2026.