The annual "Who's Hungry" report called on all levels of government to intensify efforts to curb this trend, as a new report found that one in ten people in Toronto now relies on food banks, double the number from the previous year.

Food bank usage broke another record this year, with more than 2.5 million visits between April 2022 and March 2023 – a 51 percent increase from the previous year – and no signs of slowing down, according to this year's Who's Hungry report by Daily Bread and North York Harvest Food Banks.

Daily Bread and North York Harvest also indicated in the report that they expect food bank visits in Toronto to exceed three million visits in 2023.

For his part, Ryan Noble, Executive Director of the North York Harvest Food Bank, told CBC Toronto: "We are in crisis as a city." We are in real danger as a community when one in ten of our residents needs to turn to food banks.

He said many of the food banks that North York Harvest and Daily Bread Food Bank distribute food to are a loose network of volunteers and people trying their best to respond, but the 50 percent increase is not a pace they can sustain.

Food bank visits in the GTA area increased by 51% over last year, said Daily Bread.

The report outlines a roadmap that politicians at all levels of government must follow to break the worrying trend of increasing food bank usage, most importantly calling on governments to improve social assistance programs and their rates and invest in affordable housing.