Reading Time: < 1 minute Wednesday, federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay announced up to $9.98 million in funding for community food projects through the fifth phase of the Local Food Infrastructure Fund, an outworking of the Food Policy for Canada.
Feds disburse funds on community food security projects
Since 2019 the Local Food Infrastructure Fund has committed $64.8 million to such projects
Canadian food inflation to slow through 2024, report says
More certainty has brought an uptick in grocer promotions, but consumers are struggling
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canadian food prices are expected to rise between 2.5 and 4.5 per cent in 2024, according to a new report.
“It is probable that Canadians will continue to experience the strain of food inflation compounded by increasing costs of housing, energy and various other expenditures,” according to Canada’s Food Price Report 2024.
Meeting the growing need for food banks
Canada’s food banks are finding innovative ways to cope with escalating demand
Reading Time: 5 minutes Food bank usage increased more than 20 per cent nationally during the pandemic, with children now making up about a third of food bank users. That’s according to 2021 HungerCount, a report by Food Banks Canada which says a volatile combination of higher food prices, rising housing costs and low incomes has created a “perfect […] Read more
Feds put up funds toward managing P.E.I. potato surplus
Ottawa budgets $28 million for distribution and disposal
Reading Time: 4 minutes Prince Edward Island potatoes locked out of the U.S. export market will go either to food banks or “environmentally-sound” disposal with new federal funding. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced $28 million “to support the diversion of surplus potatoes, including help to redirect surplus potatoes to organizations addressing food insecurity and support for […] Read more
Selling food donations
Lots of smart thinking is getting put into projects that deliver more donations to Canada’s food banks. Along with food processors and community donors, farmers are playing a proud role, but there’s room for more
Reading Time: 4 minutes Tania Little has deep gratitude for the support that farmers and farm groups give to Food Banks Canada. As chief development and partnership officer at FBC, it is Little’s job to connect sources of quality surplus food with the 4,700 agencies in the Canadian food bank network. “Farmers are very generous at heart … they […] Read more
Hungry in Canada
Shocking numbers of Canadians are getting left hungry and malnourished
Reading Time: 5 minutes Even before the pandemic, the number of people in Canada who didn’t have enough to eat was at alarming levels. Statistics Canada’s Community Health Survey reported in 2017-18 that 4.4 million people in Canada, including 1.2 million children under the age of 18, were unable to access enough food to eat. The pandemic has exacerbated […] Read more
Feds line up projects for surplus food program
NGOs backed to gather, distribute 12 million kg of food
Reading Time: 3 minutes The federal government has lined up eight projects to source and distribute perishable produce, meat, eggs and seafood piling up across Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the federal pandemic response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in early May that Ottawa would budget $50 million for a food surplus purchase program. The […] Read more
Tax credits for donated food
The pandemic has stretched our ability to supply food banks and provide food aid. New approaches must be found
Reading Time: 4 minutes Even at the best of times, some Canadians can’t afford to buy enough healthy, nutritious food. This year’s pandemic raised the risk that more households would fall into that group. Within just a few weeks of the lockdown, demand at food banks began to rise when millions of Canadians were furloughed or lost their jobs […] Read more
Federal surplus food program now taking applications
Qualified NGOs sought to move, distribute perishables to 'populations in need'
Reading Time: 3 minutes A federal program to get food to those who need it, using stockpiles of perishables created by the COVID-19-related shutdown of the dining sector, is now taking applications. The $50 million Surplus Food Rescue Program — which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telegraphed in a funding announcement May 5 — will take applications from “organizations addressing […] Read more
Details on federal food surplus program expected in ‘days’
Ottawa already at work with businesses, minister says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa — Detailed plans of the federal government’s food buyback program are expected soon, according to Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. Ottawa tabbed $50 million of its COVID-19 response funds for agriculture to buy surplus food from farmers and redistribute it to communities in need. The challenge Bibeau and her federal colleagues are faced with is […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
