Ottawa Food Bank makes 'heartbreaking' cuts to food programs

The Ottawa Food Bank says it's cutting donations to local food programs by up to half this year, due to all-time high visits and rising food costs. 

"The issue that we're facing right now is that unfortunately, our resources, our food [and] our funds are not keeping pace with what we're seeing in the community," said CEO Rachael Wilson. 

The food bank partners with 98 food programs across the city, which served over a half a million visits from clients in 2024.

In 2025, all of them will see their food shipments cut by between 20 and 50 per cent. 

"It's heartbreaking. Nobody wants to be making these kinds of decisions," Wilson said. "But this is the reality that we're in."

In 2019, their food budget was $1.7 million, Wilson said. This year, they're spending nearly $9.8 million to keep up with the demand — the most the Ottawa Food Bank has ever spent. 

"We just know it's not going to be enough," she said. "This is a historic time for food banks, and not in a great way."

'A food emergency'

Dennis Hansen, manager of the Centretown Community Food Centre, said they're not settling with the cut and are taking matters into their own hands. 

"A 40 per cent reduction ... could mean an extra two days where [clients] have no food, and we think that is just too large of an impact," Hansen said. 

To try to fill the gap, his team will work to fundraise even more money, but Hansen isn't sure — given the growing demand — it will be enough.

In December, he said their centre hit a monthly record, serving 1,600 clients. 

"The fact that our client base is 50 per cent larger year over year, that's horrific," he added. "It is a food emergency."

With the donations they've received so far, the centre will have sufficient resources for a few months, Hansen said, but come the spring that may not be the case. 

Harmony House, a transitional shelter in Ottawa for women and children fleeing domestic violence, is also fundraising to ease the burden on their clients. 

"It is difficult because we do have to fundraise for the shelter operations anyway, and fundraising is tight everywhere because everyone is suffering," said executive director Marilyn Matheson.

Families staying at Harmony House, or who once did, are able to pick up enough food bi-weekly to last them about a week, according to Matheson.

With the cuts, she says they receive barely enough food for three days. 

"A lot of women show up at our door with nothing," Matheson said. "They have no income, they can't buy food … you can't feed your children with nothing." 

Call for systemic changes

To help deal with the city's level of food insecurity, Wilson is calling on governments for more funding. 

The City of Ottawa currently covers 1.4 per cent of the food bank's budget, and Wilson wants to see the provincial and federal governments play a larger role.

Leanne Keddie, an associate professor of accounting at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, agrees — but says more funding is just one piece of the puzzle. 

"I think there's also a bigger discussion to be had about how so many Canadians are in this position right now in the first place," she said. 

Increasing funding is a short-term solution, Keddie said, adding there needs to be more focus on a universal basic income and holding organizations more accountable for food waste. 

"I think we need to make some more systemic changes in the medium to long term so that we're not running into these funding crises and people are going hungry on a day-to-day basis," she said.

Ottawa Morning11:24Ottawa Food Bank cutting food shipments by up to 50 per cent

The food bank says record demand and increasing costs are to blame for its decision to reduce the amount of food it distributes across the city. We hear how that’ll affect two local food programs on the front lines.