Rising demand at food banks indicative of Canada's affordability crisis

Food banks across Canada set a new record for demand in 2024, with more than two million monthly visits—nearly double the rate seen five years prior, reports CBC News.

One reason for the spike in demand is the rising cost of food.

"What we're encountering right now is a problem where food inflation is bigger than general inflation," economist and agronomist Pascal Thériault, Senior Faculty Lecturer at McGill University, told CBC.

"We perceive food as going up at a higher rate than everything else, and consumers are right when they claim that food prices are going up faster because they are."

The trade war with the United States is likely to make things worse, Theriault says.