QUEEN’S PARK — MPP for Guelph Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to the release of Feed Ontario’s Hunger Report 2025:
“Food banks are filling in the gaps that the government is creating and it’s not sustainable.
Hunger is a policy choice and policy failure by the Ford government.
Ontario food banks have never seen demand so high. More than half of them are worried they won’t be able to keep up with the rapidly growing demand that this government is creating.
One million Ontarians needed help from a foodbank this year. Shockingly, one in four had jobs. That’s just how unaffordable Ontario has become.
For the third consecutive year under this government, the poverty rate has increased, homelessness has skyrocketed and employment rates for Ontario Works recipients have dipped to half their 2019 level.
MPP Schreiner is fighting for an Ontario where no one goes hungry and everyone has what they need to thrive. I am calling on the government to immediately implement the report’s recommendations to:
- Improve Ontario’s social assistance programs;
- Invest in affordable housing;
- Build a strong workforce by enhancing worker support programs and allowing low-income workers to keep more of their income; and
- Put people at the centre of poverty reduction strategies by consulting people with lived experience and supporting the work of community organizations.”