It’s time to make hunger unthinkable in Canada

By Nick Saul and Jasmine Ramze Rezaee

Every year on October 16, World Food Day asks us to imagine a world free from hunger. But here in Canada—one of the richest countries in the world—more than 10 million people struggle to put food on the table. The choice we face is clear: accept this as normal or do something about it.

The issue isn’t a lack of food. Our grocery store shelves are full. The problem is a lack of income. Hunger in Canada doesn’t look like ration lines or scarcity. It looks like parents skipping meals so their kids can eat and workers juggling multiple jobs but still coming home to empty fridges.

Wages aren’t keeping pace with the cost of living. Government benefits haven’t kept up either. As rent, bills, and grocery prices climb, more people are pushed into instability. Emergency food services and the generosity of neighbours help, but charity is no permanent answer. It was never meant to be one.

So what do we do? The solution isn’t more food drives. The fact that food banks have become so institutionalized in our society is a symptom of rising poverty and inequality. To tackle food insecurity, we need to stop treating food as a privilege and start treating it as a right. That means ensuring everyone has enough money to live with dignity, what we at Right To Food call a dignified income floor. We need strong, reliable and targeted income supports that don’t just kick in during emergencies but create a stable foundation beneath every household.

That’s why Canada needs to move quickly with a bold idea that many of us on the frontlines of the food crisis are coalescing around: A Groceries and Essentials Benefit—a direct, monthly financial support that allows low-income households to buy the food they need. This benefit puts dignity back into people’s lives and means fewer Canadians have to rely on last-minute charity to round out the month.

With the federal budget set to be released on November 4th, Carney’s government has an opportunity to address the food security crisis and the cost-of-living challenges head-on. Yet all signals point toward austerity at a time of growing need.

This disconnect should concern us all. Affordability consistently tops Canadians’ list of worries, yet the government has offered little more than lip service to the interconnected crises of poverty, inequality, and the rising cost of living. Large infrastructure projects and efforts to expand affordable housing will take years to deliver promised results. Millions of households cannot be expected to “hold on tight” until then. Existing income security programs are inadequate, and reducing revenue at a time of rising need only worsens the gap.

Some argue that tackling hunger is too expensive. But the cost of inaction is far greater. Food insecurity drives up healthcare costs, worsens mental health, and reduces productivity. People who can’t eat properly are more likely to become sick and miss work. International research shows that hunger costs billions every year. While comparable Canadian data is limited, the impact is likely similar. Hunger also threatens democracy: material deprivation limits political participation and erodes trust in the civic institutions that sustain our democratic system. And, of course, the human toll is immeasurable.

If we want a healthier, more resilient country and economy, we must invest in solutions that allow everyone to live with dignity. Even in an era of fiscal restraint, targeted investments in the social safety net can be legacy-defining—proof that this government still has the ideas and the political will to deliver.

On World Food Day, we need to ask ourselves: are we going to accept hunger as an inevitable part of life in Canada? Or are we ready to create a country where it’s unthinkable? The upcoming federal budget is our chance to make food security a national priority.

Nick Saul, C.M. is the CEO of Right To Food and Jasmine Ramze Rezaee is the Director of Policy and Community Action.