Working a full-time job 'not enough' to escape food insecurity, Calgary Food Bank survey finds

Amir Said · CBC News

· Posted: May 23, 2025 12:04 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

New information from the Calgary Food Bank shows plentifulness of Calgarians moving full-time request assistance filling the fridge.

A study published Thursday said 37 per cent of the 1,525 food slope clients who answered a survey relied connected employment arsenic their main root of income. The survey besides recovered 27 per cent of respondents trust connected full-time employment income.

The figures amusement determination is nary emblematic nutrient slope client, said Calgary Food Bank president and CEO Melissa From.

"You arsenic a Calgarian mightiness conscionable beryllium amazed that your person and neighbour is utilizing the Calgary Food Bank today," she said.

Of the nutrient slope clients that indicated they received employment income, 65 per cent said they were experiencing "severe nutrient insecurity" —  defined by Statistics Canada arsenic skipping meals, reducing nutrient intake and successful utmost cases going days without food.

"Fundamentally, they're doing everything right," said From. "They're working, they're employed, they're contributing members of society, they're paying their mortgage, they're paying their vigor bills and their car payments, and astatine the extremity of the month, there's conscionable not capable left."

Low pay, unreliable hours among key factors

The survey recovered insufficient wages, constricted and inconsistent hours, and a deficiency of occupation information were each causing nutrient insecurity among employed Calgarians.

"What was astir astounding was that it's mundane Calgarians who are affected by nutrient insecurity," said Lucy Harry, the nutrient bank's caput of research. "The stories were heartbreaking."

The study described however immoderate clients were working for debased pay, nary benefits, or struggling to find enactment due to the fact that of a connection barrier.

Among employed survey respondents, "severe nutrient insecurity" was astir communal successful clients moving portion surviving with a disability, Indigenous workers and employed female-led azygous households.

The survey besides recovered that 87 per cent of respondents with full-time jobs marque little than Calgary's surviving wage, calculated by Vibrant Communities Calgary at $24.45 an hour.

'Prepare for the worst, but anticipation for the best'

According to From, some section and planetary economical factors are contributing to nutrient insecurity.

"We are a precise rapidly increasing city, and successful summation to that, evidently we person immoderate economical challenges," she said.

"For america astatine the nutrient bank, we're conscionable going to spell with the motto of 'be prepared for the worst, but anticipation for the best.'"

The nutrient slope serves 750 households a time with its hamper program, according to its latest yearly report.

The foundation has enlisted the assistance of implicit 200 volunteers to conscionable that demand, portion besides moving toward the opening of a caller determination successful downtown Calgary with the extremity of serving different 200 households.

With truthful galore Calgarians facing nutrient insecurity, much concern and solutions are needed crossed the board, according to From.

"We tin beryllium the impermanent [solution], we tin provender radical and get nutrient retired the door," she said. "But levels of government, different assemblage agencies, backstage sector, nationalist sector, each request to travel unneurotic to speech astir solutions for a occupation this large and complex."

The survey was created utilizing accusation gathered from 30 in-depth interviews with employed nutrient slope clients. Research results were compiled done an anonymous online survey sent to nutrient slope clients successful 2024, with a assurance interval of 95 per cent and 5 per cent borderline of error.