Lisez la déclaration en français ici.
On June 11, the federal government released its National Food Security Strategy, outlining a framework intended to strengthen food systems across Canada. As organizations working to advance food security, we welcome the government’s focus on strengthening domestic food production, food processing capacity, and local supply chains. These are important priorities that can help build a more resilient food system.
However, strengthening food systems is not the same as reducing household food insecurity. We are concerned that the strategy was developed without sufficient engagement with the nonprofit sector and fails to address the primary driver of food insecurity: inadequate incomes.
Organizations working to advance food security, poverty reduction, public health, and Indigenous food systems have decades of experience supporting communities and advocating for evidence-based solutions — and we have the data to back it up. This expertise is essential to designing policies that address the root causes of food insecurity and ensuring that national strategies are rooted in on-the-ground realities.
In Canada, food insecurity is not caused by a lack of food. It is caused by a lack of money. People experience food insecurity when their incomes — whether from work or government supports — are too low to cover basic necessities.
Today, nearly a quarter of the population, including one in three children, is food insecure. It can mean worrying about running out of food, cutting back on food to cover housing and other essentials, or skipping meals altogether. Due to systemic inequities, food insecurity more deeply affects Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities, people with disabilities, single-parent households, people living in northern and remote regions, and other communities facing structural barriers.
The federal government’s strategy aims to address the “structural causes of food insecurity.” We agree that getting to the root is essential. Earlier this year, our organizations wrote a collective letter urging the government to make income security a central pillar of the strategy, establish measurable food insecurity reduction targets, adopt a rights-based framework, and ensure stronger integration with poverty reduction efforts.
Despite our efforts to engage in the development of the strategy, it introduces no significant new measures aimed at reducing household food insecurity. While it establishes objectives related to domestic food production and food system resilience, it does not include measurable targets, timelines, or accountability mechanisms for reducing household food insecurity itself. The strategy also misses an opportunity to build on recent policy developments, such as the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, which in its current form remains insufficient to address the scale of the crisis facing millions of Canadians. Nor does it establish a clear framework for assessing whether these and other measures are reducing household food insecurity over time.
Without robust income solutions, a National Food Security Strategy cannot achieve household food security at the scale required to meet the needs of millions of Canadians.
While the strategy acknowledges the importance of Indigenous food sovereignty, it does not provide new commitments to support and sustain Indigenous food systems. For Indigenous Peoples, food insecurity is fundamentally connected to colonial policies that create barriers to traditional food systems and self-determination. Advancing Indigenous food sovereignty requires significant investments into Indigenous-led solutions, including access to land, supporting paid harvesters and hunters, removing barriers to traditional food practices, and investing in Indigenous-led food infrastructure.
These serious gaps in the strategy underscore the need for meaningful engagement with the nonprofit food security sector, Indigenous partners, researchers, and affected communities. Additionally, there is potential to explore synergies of the strategy with the groundbreaking work that is already happening at a grassroots level among the aforementioned groups. Greater transparency and broader consultation would have strengthened both the strategy and public confidence in its implementation.
We recommend that the federal government convene a cross-departmental roundtable on food security involving representatives from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, Indigenous Services Canada, Health Canada, and other relevant departments, alongside civil society organizations, researchers, Indigenous partners, and people with lived experience of food insecurity.
The purpose of this roundtable should be to discuss the National Food Security Strategy, explore opportunities to strengthen its implementation, and ensure that food security is addressed through a whole-of-government approach. While investments in domestic food production and food processing are important, reducing household food insecurity also requires coordinated action across a range of policy areas, including income security, poverty reduction, housing, employment, and reconciliation.
Millions of people in Canada continue to struggle to afford the food they need. The nonprofit sector has deep expertise, strong community relationships, and a critical role to play in shaping solutions. We urge the federal government to engage with our sector as the strategy moves forward.
Signed,
Daily Bread Food Bank
Food Banks Canada
Food Secure Canada
Maytree
Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security
Mazon Canada
Right To Food