ONDP: Nine years of rising food bank use shows Ontario families are in trouble

QUEEN’S PARK – Ontario NDP Shadow Minister for Children, Community and Social Services, Lisa Gretzky (Windsor West); and Shadow Minister for Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity and Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism, Alexa Gilmour (Parkdale—High Park); issued the following statement in response to Feed Ontario’s latest Hunger Report:

“More than one million people in Ontario needed a food bank this year. Let that sink in. That’s families, seniors, kids, and workers who are running out of options in a province that keeps getting harder to live in,” said Gretzky.

“For the ninth year in a row, food bank use has gone up, with over 8.7 million visits. Nearly one-third of users are children and almost a quarter are employed but still can’t afford groceries. That should be a wake-up call for the Ford government. People are visiting food banks more often and depending on them for longer because rent is astronomically high, wages haven’t kept up, and social assistance rates are shamefully low. Food banks are doing everything they can, but they cannot be the province’s poverty strategy since there clearly is none.”

Gilmour said the report shows how severe the crisis has become.

“These numbers should be a blaring red alarm for the Ford government. Over ten per cent of our province, one third of them children, using food banks is not an issue, it’s a full-blown crisis,” said Gilmour. “Doug Ford has created an Ontario where people can’t get jobs, can’t afford housing, and have to use food banks to eat. The social supports that the Conservatives have underfunded for nearly a decade are the exact tools we need to lift Ontarians out of poverty.”

Gilmour added that the government’s refusal to act is indefensible. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Children going to bed hungry in Ontario should be unthinkable. Every day the Ford government refuses to act and provide life-saving funding to our province’s social services is shameful. We can do better. We must do better.”

Ontario needs a real plan that delivers stronger income supports, rent stabilization, decent wages, and investments that lift people out of poverty instead of pushing them further into crisis. No one should be forced to choose between keeping a roof over their head and putting food on the table. After eight years of this government, the situation has only grown worse. New Democrats will continue pushing for a government that puts people’s basic needs first.