Policy primer: Food insecurity reduction target
October 8, 2025
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POLICY PRIMER PDFLast updated: October 2025
Canada’s food insecurity crisis continues to escalate. The latest figures show that in the past year alone, the number of people experiencing food insecurity grew by at least 1.3 million.1 What was Canada’s highest-ever rate of food insecurity has now reached an alarming new high: 10 million people or 24% of our population.
This national crisis requires focused action and accountability from our government.
Although the Canadian government monitors food insecurity as part of its Poverty Reduction Strategy, this monitoring isn’t linked to any targets.
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POLICY PRIMER PDFThat’s why Right To Food is calling on the federal government to commit to a target of reducing food insecurity by 50% and eradicating severe food insecurity by 2030.
For equitable results, this target must be achieved for disproportionately impacted groups as well, not just nationally.
The government should also establish a time-limited working group to advise on policy and program options for meeting this target. The group should be composed of people with lived experience of food insecurity and experts from the food security sector and related fields.
At least 1 in 4 people in Canada experience food insecurity.1
This growing crisis needs action now!
Why we need to act on food insecurity
- Food insecurity affects every aspect of people’s lives. It creates illness, breaks down relationships, and makes it difficult for people to find or keep work.2,3
- Food insecurity is an equity issue: It disproportionately affects groups who experience systemic inequities. Food insecurity disproportionately affects Black and Indigenous people, people with disabilities, recent immigrants, single adults who live alone, one-parent families, and renters.1
- Food insecurity reflects other affordability problems. When people have limited income, food is often the first thing they cut from their budgets. When people can’t afford food, we know they’re already having problems meeting other basic needs, like housing or prescription drugs.
How a food insecurity reduction target would help
A food insecurity reduction target would:
- Galvanize action: Setting a target to address the growing food insecurity crisis would drive the federal government to act more urgently.
- Create accountability: A target, along with the associated working group, would require the federal government to be far more accountable for reducing food insecurity. The government would need to justify its actions—or lack of action—in addressing this crisis.
- Drive focus: Meeting a target would require the government to focus on fighting the root cause of food insecurity: inadequate income.
- Sustain momentum: A target would require the government to continuously monitor progress and evaluate whether its income programs are up to the task of reducing food insecurity.
- Foster dignity and inclusion: When progress is made on reducing food insecurity against a set target, more people can access food, live dignified lives, and participate actively in their communities.
References
- Statistics Canada. (2025, May 1). Canadian Income Survey, 2023.
- Community Food Centres Canada. (2023). Sounding the alarm: The need to invest in working-age single adults.
- Research to Identify Policy Options to Reduce Food Insecurity (PROOF). (no date). What are the implications of food insecurity for health and health care?
