In the past few weeks, organizations and municipalities have been raising an alarm about household food insecurity and the significant impact it has on people’s health, the health of our communities, and the cost to the health care system.
The rising cost of living and the increasing price of groceries has many feeling a financial pinch. The results of the 2025 Nutritious Food Basket (NFB) survey help to bring into focus the growing number of households in Simcoe Muskoka unable to afford the basic, nutritious food necessary to meet current Canadian nutrition recommendations due to financial constraints.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) conducts the Nutritious Food Basket (NFB) survey annually to monitor the cost of eating a healthy diet. This survey includes 61 staple food items such as milk, eggs, and bread. According to the 2025 findings, in Simcoe Muskoka a family of four with two adults and two children, ages 8 and 14, would need to spend $1,282.89 per month to afford these essentials, while a single-person household would require $445.92.
“When household income is too low, people cannot cover their basic expenses,” says Vanessa Hurley, Public Health Nutritionist and Registered Dietitian at SMDHU. “While food insecurity is impacting people with lower incomes, those who have unstable or insecure work, people who rent, single parents with kids, those receiving social assistance, and the number of middle-income households reporting that they are also feeling the squeeze, doubled in 2024 in comparison to 2022 and 2023. And having a job does not guarantee food security. In our province, more than half of households that have income from employment are food insecure.”
When food costs are considered alongside rent and total household income, it becomes clear that many individuals and families in Simcoe Muskoka are unable to meet their basic needs, let alone any other expenses needed for daily living. A family of four receiving Ontario Works benefits would need to spend 97 per cent of their income just on food and rent alone. A parent raising two children receiving Ontario Works would need to spend 93 per cent of their income on food and rent. For a single adult on Ontario Works, covering these two essentials is impossible, consuming 168 per cent of their income, leaving no money for other basic needs such as utilities, transportation, clothing, phone and internet service, medications, school supplies or child care.
Household food insecurity is an urgent public health issue. For people experiencing food insecurity it can mean buying less or lower quality food, worrying about running out of food, skipping meals or, in the most severe cases, going without food for days. This can lead to serious physical and mental health consequences, with those affected facing a higher risk of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and depression. As people’s health deteriorates, health care costs rise, further straining the health care system and ultimately affecting the entire community.
According to recent data from Public Health Ontario (PHO), household food insecurity in Simcoe Muskoka is worsening, with 26 percent or approximately 60,000 households experiencing some level of household food insecurity from 2023 to 2024. This is in line with what is being seen at the provincial level and at the national level, the rates are at a record high. These results are significantly higher than when compared to the previous four years. Furthermore, a local survey conducted by SMDHU showed that one in three households were not able to afford the amount or quality of food they wanted in the past 30 days.
“Household food insecurity is not an access to food issue it is an income issue. Vital food charity and emergency food programs do not address household food insecurity. The growing household food insecurity crisis requires action by all levels of government to put in place sustainable, income-based solutions that put more money in people’s pockets for food and other basic needs,” says Hurley.
For more information about local food costs and household food insecurity statistics, please visit the Household Food Insecurity and Nutritious Food Basket sections of the health unit’s HealthSTATS website.
From the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
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@Kathryn E Henderson
I’m not a liberal, but…
Although it makes some sense to point to federal policy given national issues like inflation and interest rates, the most direct, daily impact on whether a family in Simcoe Muskoka can afford basic necessities like rent and food is controlled by provincial and municipal decisions on housing, social assistance, and wages.
That’s particularly relevant here in the Muskoka region, which is a Conservative stronghold at both the federal and provincial levels. This puts the responsibility for the clearly inadequate social assistance rates (like those for Ontario Works) squarely at the feet of our Provincial government and our local representatives (Conservatives).
But, lets not forget to throw criticism at the large food retailers who have been making record profits and using inflation as an excuse to raise food prices far beyond their own increased costs:
– Industry-wide financial data shows that food retail net profits have more than doubled compared to pre-pandemic norms.
– Retailers’ net income margins (profit as a share of revenue) have remained significantly elevated, even as inflation for other sectors has moderated, suggesting they are increasing prices beyond what is necessary to cover their own rising input costs.
– While retailers claim they are just passing on costs, the surge in profits coinciding with the rise in prices is consistent with the concept of “greedflation”, where companies use a supply-shock event (like the pandemic or war) as an opportunity to widen their markups.
The truth is – Liberals and Conservatives are working harder to protect the financial interests of these big retail companies than they are for the people in Simcoe Muskoka struggling to make ends meet.
You can thank Trudeau and Carney for high prices. They are not doing anything to bring the prices down