How Niagara Region business and food banks are helping with rising food insecurity

Nearly 28 per cent of households in the Niagara Region experienced food insecurity in 2023 and 2024 — a steep 56 per cent increase from 2021 and 2022 — according to Public Health Ontario’s most recent data.

Those are statistics that Brock University political science Prof. Joanne Heritz said aren’t going down anytime soon.

“We’re going to see increasing food insecurity,” Heritz told CBC News.

Heritz, who authored a Niagara hunger report released in October 2025, found that more people in the Niagara Region will rely on food banks and meal programs. She reviewed Feed Niagara, the region’s food bank network and its supply distribution.

“People just don’t have enough income to support their housing and their nutritional needs,” Heritz said, noting there’s also an increased demand for meal programs from local organizations and churches.

“The cost of housing has gone up. The cost of living, especially for renters, is challenging. Food prices are going up. There’s just more demands made on people’s incomes.”

Households using Niagara food bank tripled

Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold says its food security programs helped fill over 275,000 tummies in 2024 and 2025 — an all-time high for the non-profit organization.

For every household that uses their food bank, that is “10 tummies filled,” said Betty-Lou Souter, CEO of Community Care. 

This number includes the daily 70 people, who are homeless, who use their take-out meal option, and seniors who receive a monthly food delivery.

“We have more seniors than we ever had before, more kids,” said Souter.

Community Care says children under the age of 17 make up about a third of the clients they served in 2025, and that during their annual holiday drive, kids are asking for food instead of presents.

Heritz considers their food bank as “low barrier,” only requiring proof of residency in St. Catharines and Thorold to access their services without having to show proof of income.

The food bank also uses a points system, where each household is given an amount of points that resets every month. They can use them to “shop” for food without having to spend a cent.

Local business commits to meal giveback for every sale

One family business in Welland has developed a way to help with food insecurity and has provided over two million meals.

For every apron sold, Cooks Who Feed gives back 100 meals through Second Harvest in Canada and No Kid Hungry in the U.S.

Seema Sanghavi, founder of Cooks Who Feed, said growing up, she and her parents, who immigrated to Canada from India, experienced food insecurity.

“We need new initiatives put in place so that we can start reversing that trend and have less and less reliance on food banks,” Sanghavi told CBC.

In 2019, Sanghavi created Cooks Who Feed after noticing the lack of sustainable and socially responsible brands in the food business.

“Especially in the kitchen linen space,” said Sanghavi. “There’s definitely no meal giveback and I just thought there’s an opportunity here to create a brand for the conscious cook.”

Since its launch, Cooks Who Feed has collaborated with many renowned chefs and food influencers, such as The Modern Nonna, The ChefSmartyPants and Amanda Freitag, as well as Niagara vineyards like Stratus.