Food insecurity ‘requires more than charity’

Manitoba families are increasingly struggling to feed their children as they contend with high rent, inflation and insufficient government support, the province’s largest food bank warned.

While employment, education and marriage once provided reliable avenues to help families rise above poverty, the latest 2025 Harvest Voices report shows those pathways are no longer so viable, said Vince Barletta, president and CEO of Manitoba Harvest.

“There used to be a social contract in our society that, if you did the right things… you were going to do OK, and the reality is people continue to fall behind,” Barletta said.

“We’ve seen a real shift in these last five years in who visits a food bank.”

The report, released annually since 2020, includes survey results from hundreds of Manitoba food bank clients to offer a snapshot of food insecurity.

It found the number of people using food banks per month rose from 50,000 to 60,000 last year. It is a continuation of a grim trend that has seen the need for food banks increase at a “staggering rate” in recent years — rising 150 per cent since 2020, Barletta said.

The report says the number of clients who have children younger than 18 years old has increased from 32 per cent to 45 per cent, and 62 per cent of families report going hungry at least once a month.

About 70 per cent of clients are Canadian citizens, and 30 per cent are employed. Among all clients, 55 per cent have a disability or illness.

Nearly two-thirds of people using food banks have some form of post-secondary education, up from one-third. However, 80 per cent earn less than $30,000 per year.

Addressing food insecurity is “a growing systemic challenge that demands comprehensive policy action,” the report says.

“This is not a problem that can be solved by emergency food provision alone. The root causes such as inadequate income support, unaffordable housing, insufficient childcare, and barriers to employment require co-ordinated action across all levels of government.”

About half of the people using food banks have been doing so for less than one year, and use the service as a “safety net” when they do not have enough money to make ends meet, it says.

Harvest Manitoba lists 10 recommendations, including increasing disability benefits to $500 per month, expanding employment training and access to affordable housing and childcare.

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It is advocating for a livable basic needs benefit that would adjust the current employment and assistance program to provide income sufficient for basic needs. The current employment assistance program is 40 per cent below the poverty line, the report said.

“These are the insights that come from people who visit food banks. We take our policy cues and our advocacy advice from them, and we use this report as a way to bring all that together and shine a light on the challenges,” Barletta said.

He stressed that addressing food insecurity “requires more than charity” and should include investments in the social determinants of health and a commitment to dignity and respect for all Manitobans.

The report is based on a survey conducted between May and September that collected responses from 597 food bank users. It included 62 questions related to demographics, education, income, health, wellness and food insecurity.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.