Food Banks Canada’s 2026 report gave Ontario a D- for food insecurity. One in four Canadians are affected, including local families and farmers on Manitoulin Island, as housing and living costs soar.
ONTARIO—There was a time when hunger in Canada was imagined as residing solely at the margins, a hardship borne by those without work, without housing, without options and often attributed to poor decision making or just plain bad luck.
These narratives are becoming progressively harder to swallow.
Across Ontario, food insecurity is increasingly showing up in households where people are working, raising children, paying rent and doing everything society has long insisted should be enough.
According to the latest report from Food Banks Canada, roughly one in four Canadians now experiences food insecurity. The organization’s 2026 Poverty Report Cards awarded Canada a D+ overall, a slight improvement from the previous year, but one that masks a deepening crisis in kitchens, grocery aisles and food banks across the country.
Ontario fared even worse.
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