On January 27, we stood beside Mayor Olivia Chow as she made an unprecedented announcement. Amid a historic hunger crisis — in which more than 1 in 10 Torontonians now rely on food banks and Daily Bread’s network served over 3.75 million client visits in 2024 — Toronto’s City Council has taken the landmark step of declaring food insecurity an emergency across the city.
Introduced by Mayor Olivia Chow and seconded by Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin, this official City Council motion signals a critical acknowledgment of deepening poverty and food insecurity in Toronto.
We are deeply encouraged that the motion calls for measures that Daily Bread Food Bank has long championed to advance the right to food for our clients and all Toronto residents. Specifically, it urges all levels of government to strengthen income support programs, boost investments in deeply affordable housing, and create pathways to secure, decent jobs.
The motion directs the City to integrate this emergency declaration into major initiatives including the Poverty Reduction Strategy, Food Charter, and School Food Program. It emphasizes expanding the School Food Program to additional schools, with a call for the provincial government to immediately increase funding to achieve a truly universal program, which the City committed to in October 2024 alongside Daily Bread.
Additionally, the motion urges the federal and provincial governments to:
Since 2001, the City of Toronto has recognized every resident’s right to adequate, nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate food through the Toronto Food Charter. Yet, more than two decades later, far too many Torontonians are struggling to put food on the table.
Our Who’s Hungry 2024 report illustrated record demand for food bank services last year, with over 154,000 new clients turning to food banks for the first time — and those numbers have continued to climb. The City has also reported that 1 in 4 households (24.9%) in Toronto experience food insecurity, and this crisis disproportionately impacts already-marginalized groups including people with low incomes, individuals on social assistance, people with disabilities, renters, and more.
The City motion’s focus on income supports is therefore vital. With 1 in 4 Toronto food bank clients reporting a disability, there is an urgent need for an adequate and accessible Canada Disability Benefit and strengthened Ontario Disability Support Program to lift them out of poverty. Similarly, the emphasis on decent work is essential given that over half (51%) of new food bank clients have at least one member of their household who is employed, yet many of those individuals are in precarious jobs with inadequate wages.
Affordable housing is also critical, as nearly 9 in 10 food bank clients (87%) live in unaffordable housing — and some are even worse off. 1 in 5 clients spends 100% or more of their income on housing, leaving no money for other necessities and putting them at very high risk of homelessness.
By aligning its food insecurity declaration with these urgent needs, the City of Toronto has taken a crucial step toward raising awareness and advancing the right to food. However, meaningful change requires decisive action from all levels of government to enhance income supports, create decent jobs, and significantly invest in deeply affordable housing. We at Daily Bread will therefore continue to advocate for critical policy changes at all levels of government, and we invite you to join us.
Here are three actions you can take now to help end hunger in our city:
