Twenty-seven per cent of Albertans are food insecure. In March 2025, nearly 2.2 million Canadians visited food banks. Local food security co-ordinator Alison Van Dyke says only about 20 per cent of people struggling with food insecurity visit food banks, meaning the number of Canadians in need is much higher.--FILE PHOTO
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According to a report released last week by a food analytics lab at Dalhousie University, Alberta ranks troublingly high in a number of metrics about food insecurity.
The Food Sentiment Index, a biannual report released by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, highlights data based on how Canadians feel about food affordability alongside hard metrics on food insecurity.
In terms of the latter, Albertans appear to be struggling, with 36 per cent needing to borrow money or draw from savings to purchase food in the fall 2025.
The Prairies lead the country in this metric. Alberta ranked second highest in this category, behind Saskatchewan at 29 per cent and just ahead of Manitoba at 34 per cent.
Although Alberta is one of the country’s wealthiest provinces, it continues to rank higher than the national average in food insecurity. According to the Food Sentiment Index, the national rate is 25.5 per cent.
Data from the food security organization Right to Food shows that Alberta’s food insecurity rate is 27 per cent.
Alison Van Dyke, food security co-ordinator with the Community Food Connections Association, says food security is part of a holistic landscape about affordability, and Alberta struggles with high costs of living.
The Right to Food data shows that eight per cent of people living in the riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner live with poverty, on par with the provincial average. Nine per cent of residents live in inadequate or unaffordable housing, which is lower than the provincial average of 10 per cent.
“Food insecurity is an income-based issue,” Van Dyke said. “So it’s related to affordability in general. Food is often the component of a person’s budget that has the most wiggle room.
“You can’t negotiate your rent. You have to pay car insurance at a rate that you don’t get to choose. So people are forced to cut spending on food, because it’s the only budget line they can control.”
In her 12 years working in food insecurity, Van Dyke says she has watched as food insecurity has become a more widespread issue. She says by her estimates, one in four people in Medicine Hat are now affected.
Nationwide, factors like transportation costs, producer costs, climate change, price fixing and tariffs have all had an impact on driving up food prices across the country.
“People should be aware that it’s not just one thing. We’ve seen all of those things happening over the last few years in Canada.”
One bright spot in the Food Sentiment Index is the number of consumers intentionally choosing to buy local, which has jumped drastically from 33.5 per cent in 2024 to 51.9 per cent in 2025.
Van Dyke says she was impressed by that number.
“Community food insecurity is different than household food insecurity. It’s about availability of food in communities. That’s why we encourage people to purchase from local producers,” she said.
“You want to make sure that food remains available to your community, and the only way to do that is to make sure that producers can continue to produce, and you do that by supporting local producers.”
Here in Medicine Hat, she says there are several programs people can access to alleviate their own food insecurity or contribute to the overall food security of the community.
The Root Cellar provides a brown bag lunch program for children, and the local Good Food Club offers produce at wholesale prices to Medicine Hat and Redcliff residents. By buying their produce from the club, Van Dyke says Hatters can help keep it running for the residents who need it most.
For more information about local food insecurity and initiatives to combat it, visit foodconnections.ca.
