Hunger
Count 2025

Overall Findings
The Data
Driving Change
Policy Recommendations
Methodology

OVERALL FINDINGS

Every year, food banks across the country are setting new records. This year, they recorded nearly 2.2 million visits in a single month. That’s double the monthly usage recorded just six years ago. It took decades to reach one million visits in a month, and it has now taken half a decade to double that.

Behind every food bank visit is a story. A parent skipping meals so their kids can eat. A senior choosing between medication and groceries. A worker juggling multiple jobs and still coming up short at the end of the month. Theses are not outliers.

This is Canada’s new normal.

THE DATA

Canada	ALL

Total Visits	2,165,776

Total Visits (Child)	711,770

% Change in Total Visits 2024-2025	5.15

% Change in Total Visits 2019-2025	99.37

Total Meals and Snacks	4,522,356

Food Banks Reporting	2,725

33%
ARE CHILDREN

Representing nearly 712,000 visits — an increase of nearly 340,000 monthly visits compared to six years ago.

42%
ARE SINGLE

Single-person households remain the most common household type accessing food banks in Canada.

40%
ARE ON SOCIAL ASSISTANCE OR DISABILITY-RELATED SUPPORTS

Grossly inadequate provincial social assistance remains the most common source of income for food bank clients.

19%

19% of food bank clients report employment as their main source of income, compared to 12% in 2019.

11.7%

receive provincial disability support

8.3%

8.3% of food-bank clients are seniors, up from 6.8% in 2019

Nearly 1 in 10 receive pension income

23%

are two-parent families with children, compared to 19% in 2019

4,522,356

is the total number of meals and snacks served in March 2025 (does not include hamper programs)

Help Us Drive Change

Donate.

Give Now.

Volunteer.

Find a Food Bank.

Advocate.

Learn more.

OUR METHODOLOGY

The annual HungerCount is Food Banks Canada’s signature report documenting food bank use in Canada. It is a cross-sectional census survey of most food bank agencies, organizations, and programs, within and outside of the Food Banks Canada network. The HungerCount provides a point in time snapshot of food bank use in Canada.

Food Banks Canada is always looking for ways to improve the HungerCount report. If you have questions about the report, or ideas on how we could improve it, we would like to hear from you. Please get in touch at info@foodbankscanada.ca and put HungerCount in the subject line of your message.

To learn more about our data collection and analysis processes for HungerCount 2025, click here to download the full PDF report.