City of Mississauga declares food insecurity an emergency

An updated image of a Food Banks Mississauga warehouse. (Supplied)

Food insecurity has now officially been declared an emergency in Mississauga.

On Wednesday, city council passed a motion recognizing that a significant number of its residents lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food.

“This formal declaration is a monumental step in recognizing that food insecurity has gone beyond crisis levels and is not a temporary issue. Food insecurity has been affecting too many residents for far too long,” the City of Mississauga said in a news release.

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The motion also calls for increasing the municipality’s Food Security Emergency Response Fund along with collaboration from other levels of government when it comes to food security advocacy and awareness campaigns that highlight the need for more funding for essential supports for residents.

Further, it aims to have the provincial and federal governments declare food insecurity as an emergency, improve Ontario’s social assistance programs, garner investment in affordable, supportive, and public housing, help build a stronger workforce through better labour laws that benefit workers and enhance worker-support program, and lastly support the Groceries and Essentials Benefit, which would help struggling households to immediately afford food and shelter.

‘Unacceptable and unsustainable’

According to a recent report by Food Banks Mississauga, the city of 716,000 people has the fastest-growing rate food bank usage in Ontario with 1 in 13 residents, or eight per cent of the population, having visited one between June 2023 and May 2024. In 2019, 1 in 37 Mississauga residents accessed a food bank.

The report also found that the organization and its network of 60-plus agencies served more than 56,000 clients during that time frae, a 58 per cent increase from the previous year. From June 2023 to May 2024, food banks in Mississauga recorded more than 420,000 visits, which represents an almost 80 per cent year-over-year increase.

And the demand is expected to steadily increase according to Statistics Canada and Food Banks Canada, which are estimating that a quarter of all Canadian residents will need the help of a community program.

“This situation is unacceptable and unsustainable,” the City of Mississauga said in a release, adding that its food bank usage rate exceeds the provincial average.

The municipality went on to say that while food banks “continue to fill a critical gap, this is a broader issue that they – and we – can’t solve alone, and it’s not just a Mississauga problem.”

With that being said, the city is calling on the provincial and federal governments to help it work toward “lasting change by addressing the root causes and structural issues driving food insecurity.”

“We need long-term, sustainable, poverty-reduction legislation, policies and programs supporting basic human rights. We must come together to do better for our communities,” Mayor Carolyn Parrish said.

Meghan Nicholls, the CEO of Food Banks Mississauga, said food insecurity and the demand for non-profit services now far exceeds what was seen at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have seen an almost 80 per cent increase in food bank visits in the past year. However, despite our best efforts, we’ve only been able to grow revenue by two per cent during that same time,” she said.

“The lack of provincial and federal funding for food banks and those facing food insecurity means that we continue to face an uphill battle as more of our neighbours fall further behind.”