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Canadians still prioritize government action on cost of living, poverty and food insecurity: Results from our 2025 public opinion survey

One of the goals of the Centre is to increase public awareness of and support for policies to reduce food insecurity in Canada. For the past five years, we have partnered with David Herle to run an annual nationally representative survey[1] to gauge public awareness and opinion of food insecurity.

Our 2025 results show strong support for governments to address costs of living and for policies that could reduce poverty and food insecurity. Some highlights of the research are found below. For full results, please email info@feedopportunity.com.

If you would like to use the data, please cite “The Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security and David Herle (June 10-14, 2025). Public insights on food insecurity. www.feedopportunity.com”.

After steadily increasing, the proportion of Canadians who report they are somewhat or much worse off than two years ago has started to plateau.

In 2021, The Centre began asking whether Canadians felt they were financially better or worse off than two years previous and we had seen a steady increase in the proportion of Canadians who felt they were worse off financially. This has started to level off in 2024 and 2025, with less than half (44%) stating they felt they were worse off than two years ago.

Canadians continue to be very concerned about the number of people living with poverty or food insecurity, just behind the rising price for essentials.

Almost all Canadians (89%) are concerned about the rising costs of essentials, with 60% reporting they are “very concerned”. Canadians are very or somewhat concerned that 1 in 3 children in Canada live in a food insecure home, that 10 million or 25.5% of people in Canada are food insecure, and that there has been a 90% increase in food bank usage compared to 2019 (83% each). Notably, the proportion of Canadians very concerned about their own ability to afford food has nearly tripled to 31% in 2025 from 12% when we began our polling in 2020. This is also the highest level of concern we’ve seen so far.

A stacked bar chart showing the percentages of Canadians who are very concerned or somewhat concerned about various personal and social issues. The top six issues where Canadians are very concerned or somewhat concerned are rising prices for essentials at 89%; the number of Canadians, including children, who live in poverty at 84%; the threat to the Canadian economy posed by US tariffs at 84%; that 1 in 3 children in Canada live in a food insecure home at 83%; that 10 million or 25.5% of people in Canada are food insecure at 83%; and the 90% increase in food bank usage compared to 2019 at 83%.

The term “food insecurity” continues to be familiar to most Canadians, though 2025 shows a slight decline for the first time since 2020.

We saw a significant growth in the proportion of Canadians who are familiar with the term “food insecurity” between 2020 and 2024, peaking at 77% in 2024. In 2025, 72% reported being somewhat or very familiar with the term.

Area graph showing a rising percentage of Canadians who are somewhat or very familiar with the term "food insecurity" from 2020 to 2025. In 2025, 41% were somewhat familiar with the term and 31% were very familiar.

Canadians strongly believe in government intervention to address food insecurity.

Nearly all Canadians believe government should ensure no child in Canada goes hungry (86% strongly or somewhat agree) and that people going hungry in Canada goes against our Canadian values (82% strongly or somewhat agree). Broad support exists for food benefit programs, establishing a target to reduce food insecurity by 50%, and a free national school food program.

: Title of graph is "Most Canadians find desirable policies which will make it easier to buy or rent a home and provide income support for people with disabilities and those living on low income." This is a stacked bar chart with 14 different policies and shows what percentage Canadians find each policy "very desirable", "somewhat desirable", "somewhat not or not at all desirable" or they don't know.

When asked to choose between policies, Canadians chose reducing poverty and food insecurity by a substantial margin over expanding the production and export of Canada’s natural resources like oil, gas, and minerals, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions which worsen climate change. Although by a narrower margin, they also selected reducing poverty and food insecurity over more subsidized housing for lower income Canadians and lowering personal and sales taxes.

Bar chart showing the percentage of Canadians when asked the question, "Which of the following two initiatives do you think is more important for society?" who choose "Reducing poverty and food insecurity" compared to four other policies. The four other policy choices displayed are “Expand the production and export of Canada’s natural resources like oil, gas, and minerals" at 36%, "More subsidized housing for lower income Canadians" at 38%, "Reducing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions which worsen climate change" at 24%, and "Lower personal sales taxes" at 39%.

More than 4 in 5 Canadians support the adoption of a program that would provide low-income families money to purchase food.

83% of people surveyed said that they would support a program providing money for food to low-income families in Canada. Nearly as many (78%) would support the idea of the healthcare system prescribing fruits and vegetables to improve chronic diseases.

Title of graph is "Percentage of Canadians who stated their level of support for ideas listed below". The stacked bar shows the percentage of Canadians who strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, strongly oppose and don't know their opinions on two statements. The first statement is "In some countries, there is a program that provides low-income people money to purchase food for their families. How much do you support or oppose this idea for Canada?" The second statement is "In some countries, private insurers are increasingly financing the prescribing of healthy fruits and vegetables as a way to improve health among people with chronic diseases to lower healthcare costs. Assuming that the costs of such prescriptions would be covered by the health care system, how much do you support or oppose that idea?"

These results highlight the importance Canadians place on government intervention to strengthen the social safety net and reduce poverty and food insecurity. The Centre will continue to work with governments at all levels to design, improve and evaluate poverty reduction and food security policies and programs.

[1] From June 10-14, 2025, we surveyed 2,613 people in Canada, with quotas and weights to reflect the gender, age, education, household income, Indigenous ethnicity and regional distribution of adults in Canada (the margin of error for a probability-based sample would be +/- 2%, 19 times out of 20).

October 16, 2025