Niagara is experiencing an “alarming increase” in the number of people — particularly children — who are relying on food banks to meet their basic food security needs, says research from Brock University’s Niagara Community Observatory (NCO).

But this trend shows no signs of slowing down because the main drivers of food insecurity — wages and social assistance programs failing to keep up with inflation and the lack of affordable housing, among others — aren’t being addressed, says the research brief, released Tuesday, April 2.

“As charitable organizations, food banks were designed to provide temporary assistance to those in need,” says the brief’s author, Assistant Professor of Political Science Joanne Heritz. “Today, they are responding to systemic inadequacies by supporting an alarming number of vulnerable residents with food security.”

“Sustaining Food Security in Niagara” documents the situation of food insecurity at the local, provincial and national levels and provides a detailed examination of food bank reliance in Niagara. It then analyzes various responses to food insecurity and concludes with recommendations for all levels of governments.

To get the picture of Niagara, Heritz conducted interviews last summer and fall with 24 representatives of food acquisition and distribution organizations in Niagara’s 12 municipalities.

She also interviewed organizations serving vulnerable groups such as children, asylum seekers and students.

The brief’s findings include:

• The four municipalities with the greatest rises in food bank use are: Niagara-on-the-Lake, where use increased 118 per cent from 2021 to 2023; followed by St. Catharines and Thorold with an 82 per cent increase from 2022 to 2023; and Niagara Falls with a 65 per cent increase from 2022 to 2023.
• In St. Catharines, Thorold and Welland, one in 10 residents, and in Niagara Falls, Port Colborne and Wainfleet, one in eight residents, visited a food bank in 2023.
• More than 40 per cent of people relying on Feed Niagara-based food banks are children. Food-insecure children are more likely to experience hyperactivity, inattention and lower academic performance, and develop serious mental health problems.

The brief also notes a “dramatic” rise in the number of employed people accessing Niagara’s food banks for the first time, with some working three or four jobs, along with those on fixed incomes.

Ontario statistics show the three factors leading people to turn to food banks are unaffordable housing, precarious employment and inadequate social assistance.

“Residents of Niagara are not earning enough, or not receiving enough, to cover the increasing cost of their rent, which is usually prioritized before their nutritional needs,” says Heritz.

She lists several policy recommendations for federal, provincial and local governments that would help boost food security efforts in Niagara, including:

• Providing a basic income for low-income households.
• Raising minimum wage, disability benefits and social assistance rates to align with a living wage. As an example, the brief says full-time workers in Niagara need to earn $20.35 an hour, from the current minimum wage of $16.55 an hour, “to meet their basic needs in 2024.”
• Increasing the supply of community housing in response to the growing number of people on waitlists.
• All municipalities supporting Niagara Region in securing federal and provincial funding for affordable housing

The NCO brief comes at a time when Canada has reached “a crisis point in the predicament of food insecurity,” says NCO Director Charles Conteh. “This policy brief documents this national reality, focusing on the situation in Niagara and the region’s response to the crisis.”

He notes that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s April 1 announcement of a new, $1-billion, five-year National School Food Program to provide 400,000 meals to children “marks a critical milestone in Canada, the only G7 country without such a program.”

“The federal government’s initiative is a step in the right direction,” says Conteh. “However, the policy brief offers a set of concrete policy recommendations for all levels of government and non-state actors to consider.”