Nearly 1 in 3 kids in Canada lives in a home that can’t count on enough food.
Who goes without, what it actually costs to feed each person in a family, and what yours costs. Every number links to its source.
0.0%
of kids under 18 (2.4 million) lived in a food-insecure home in 2024, up from 20.1% in 2019
0.0%
of single mothers and their kids, the hardest-hit family type
0.0 million
Canadians in all, 24% of the population
Since 2019
Food insecurity rose by half in five years, and kids took the worst of it.
“Food insecure” means a household worried about running out, ate less or worse than it needed, or went without, because of money. Kids went from 20.1% in 2019 to 30.8% in 2024 (it peaked at 33% in 2023).
Statistics Canada, table 13-10-0835-01, % of persons, Canada.
Who goes without
Single parents, people living alone, and the families of young kids.
47.4%
Single mothers
Almost half of single mothers and their children are food insecure; 15.1% severely, the highest of any family type.
30.4% · 31.3%
Boys vs girls
No real gap between boys and girls. The survey measures the household, so brothers and sisters share the same answer. The gap is in what each costs to feed (below).
13.6%
Men under 65 living alone
Severely food insecure: one of the highest rates of real hunger in the survey (30.4% food insecure in all).
By family type
Single mothers and their kids
47.4%was 40.9% in 2019
Single fathers and their kids
32.8%was 31.3% in 2019
Men under 65 living alone
30.4%was 22.7% in 2019
Women under 65 living alone
30.5%was 26% in 2019
Couples with children
27.3%was 16.5% in 2019
Couples without children
17.7%was 10.8% in 2019
Seniors living alone
13%was 10% in 2019
Senior couples
7.1%was 5.1% in 2019
By age
Kids under 18
30.8%was 20.1% in 2019
Adults 18 to 24
26.7%was 18.1% in 2019
Adults 25 to 34
26.8%was 18.1% in 2019
Adults 35 to 44
28.4%was 19.8% in 2019
Adults 45 to 54
26%was 15.6% in 2019
Adults 55 to 64
20.3%was 13.1% in 2019
Seniors 65+
11.9%was 8.1% in 2019
By community
Black Canadians
41.3%was 0% in 2019
Indigenous people
34.7%was 0% in 2019
Recent immigrants (10 yrs or less, 15+)
30.8%was 24.9% in 2019
Everyone
24%was 16% in 2019
Seniors are the exception: 11.9% in 2024. In our view, one reason is that public pensions rise with inflation and most wages and family benefits did not keep pace.
What it costs
A teenage boy costs the most to feed of anyone in the house.
Health Canada’s minimum protein intake (the amount that prevents a shortfall) is 52 g a day for a teen boy and 46 g for a teen girl. That is a floor, not a target for an active teenager, who is often advised to eat well above it. He also needs more energy than anyone else in the house. At expected 2026 food prices he costs about $97 a week, 20% more than his sister. A family with teenage sons feels every price rise first.
Healthy diet, per person, per week
Teen boy 14–18
$97/wk
Man 31–50
$86/wk
Boy 9–13
$82/wk
Teen girl 14–18
$80/wk
Woman 31–50
$78/wk
Girl 9–13
$77/wk
Child 4–8
$63/wk
Canada’s Food Price Report 2026, Dalhousie University, Table 7 (predicted food spending per person, per year, divided by 52). Child 4–8 averages the boy and girl figures. Protein needs: Health Canada DRI tables.
Who do you feed?
Man 31–50
Woman 31–50
Teen boy 14–18
Teen girl 14–18
Boy 9–13
Girl 9–13
Child 4–8
What a household like yours is expected to spend on food
$338 a week
$1,464 a month · $17,572 a year
Canada’s Food Price Report 2026, Dalhousie University, Table 7.
What the research says
Parents go without so the little ones don’t. Teenagers and adults pay for it.
The official count is an undercount.
The survey behind these numbers does not include people living on First Nations reserves, people in some remote northern areas, or people without housing. PROOF, the University of Toronto's food insecurity research program, calls the figures an underestimate.
Teens and adults fall short on protein.
In food-insecure homes, more teenagers and adults ate below their needs, with the gap most marked for protein, B vitamins, magnesium and zinc. Young children showed little difference.
Kirkpatrick & Tarasuk, University of Toronto, Journal of Nutrition, 2008
Mothers eat less so their kids can eat.
141 low-income single mothers in Atlantic Canada, followed for a month: mothers ate worse than their children every week, and the gap widened as money ran out at the end of the month.
Worse food, less protein for older kids.
The more severe a home's food insecurity, the more of everyone's calories came from ultra-processed food, and for kids 9 to 18, the less protein per calorie. Low-income youth were also shorter for their age and got less calcium and vitamin D; low-income boys drank less milk.
Hutchinson & Tarasuk, Public Health Nutrition, 2022 · Mark et al., Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2012
We found no Canadian study that measures whether boys fall short on protein more often than girls. What is measured: teenagers in food-insecure homes fall short more often than young children, and a teen boy needs the most food of anyone in the house.
What we think
Families aren’t failing at budgeting. They can’t see the prices they’re budgeting against.
In our view, the cheapest healthy week exists in every city, but finding it means comparing hundreds of prices across stores that don’t publish them in a form anyone can compare. Standard unit pricing and open price data would let every family, and every tool built for them, find it. That is what the letter asks for.
Sign the letterMethod and sources
- Food insecurity: Statistics Canada 13-10-0835-01 and 13-10-0834-01 (Canadian Income Survey), % of persons in food-insecure households, Canada, 2018–2024. “Severe” is StatCan’s own category.
- Expected food spending per person: Canada’s Food Price Report 2026, Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Dalhousie University, Table 7.
- Research summaries are written from each study’s published abstract; follow the links for the full papers.
- Protein and energy needs: Health Canada Dietary Reference Intakes (macronutrients, energy equations).