B.C. food bank visits have gone up by 100 per cent since 2019.
Food Banks Canada just released Canada’s 2026 HungerCount, revealing that monthly food bank visits in B.C. went up by 14 per cent between 2025 and 2026.
In 2026, there were just over 250,000 visits to B.C. food banks, with nearly 76,000 of those being from children.
Canada-wide, food bank use has gone up by 117 per cent since 2019. Since 2025, it has risen by 8.7 per cent nationally.
“In the past, most people in Canada could absorb a small financial setback — a car repair, a family illness, a modest increase in food prices at the grocery store. Those days are over. Canada’s bleak new reality is that millions of people are making impossible trade-offs every day as they choose between food or rent,” said Kirstin Beardsley, Food Banks Canada CEO, in a statement.
Food Banks Canada argues that this is the result of “decades of inadequate government action,” as food banks “have become part of Canada’s social safety net.”
Since 2021, Canada has seen food prices increase by 30 per cent, housing costs by 28 per cent, and transportation costs by nearly 24 per cent.
Further, Food Banks Canada reported that 18 per cent of food bank clients are employed. It found that people with the lowest incomes spend about 60 per cent of their disposable income on housing.
Beardsley said that “this does not have to be Canada’s story,” and called on governments to “modernize EI, double the Canada Workers Benefit, and invest in critical infrastructure to improve food access and support a more affordable and resilient future.”
Food Banks Canada also wants the government to protect access to EI across “life events,” as well as for people who use up their benefits before finding employment. They also suggested creating a clear contribution pathway for self-employed and gig workers, as well as reviewing “eligibility thresholds to better capture part-time, seasonal, and irregular work partners.”
Further, they are calling on the government to double the Canada Workers Benefit and raise the income eligibility threshold to “at least the poverty line,” as well as remove barriers to the Disability Tax Credit.
The organization is also calling for more housing support through funding for “deeply affordable, supportive, co-operative, non-profit, and public housing,” as well as speeding up construction of new homes through federal land, financing, and tax measures.