Good morning, Mr. Chair and honourable members.
On behalf of the Salvation Army, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to your study on food security in the face of global instability.
As the largest non-government provider of social services in Canada, this is something we see every day in the 400 communities—urban, suburban, rural, remote and northern—that we serve across our country from coast to coast to coast. The one thing that is similar in every jurisdiction, in every unit across our nation, is food security issues.
The food policy for Canada's vision is that “All people in Canada are able to access a sufficient amount of safe, nutritious, and culturally diverse food.” Food security is fundamentally about access, ensuring that people living in Canada have reliable access to nutritious food. The access to food is what we would like to speak to today.
Individuals and families are turning to community food hubs when food insecurity means that there's not enough food at home for their dinner. The Salvation Army has been working to strengthen food security and to improve support for the people we serve across our country. The people we serve, who are on limited incomes—seniors, single-income families, minimum wage earners and those on income assistance programs—face barriers to accessing local food. They're usually limited to the cheapest, mass-produced food, sourced from distant locations. Food security requires support to ensure access to locally produced food.
As this committee has heard previously, food affordability and access are closely tied to the people and labour supporting every stage of that system. Community organizations continue to face the same rising costs for food, labour and operations as other sectors, so food distributed through the charitable and not-for-profit sector requires significant supports beyond the food itself. Those include staffing, program space, transportation, storage and essential supplies—the elements that are necessary to ensure safe and dignified service delivery and that contribute meaningfully to the overall cost of food programming.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when global supply chains fractured and many more people than usual in our community faced food insecurity in the face of global instability, the federal government recognized this. Through the emergency food security fund, the government stepped up with direct funding for frontline community networks, of which we as the Salvation Army were one. This model proved that predictable federal investments allow local organizations to stabilize procurement, absorb market shocks and safely bridge the gap between Canadian producers and vulnerable households.
Now, in the face of ongoing global instability and inflation, that baseline support is more urgent than ever. As household budgets tighten, community needs are trending up at the exact moment that donations are dipping. We cannot build a resilient, sovereign food system on unpredictable, reactive charity alone.
In our pre-budget submission, we called for the establishment of a permanent, stable $300-million federal food security fund. This fund would represent a substantial step forward in supporting local community food procurement. It would give community hubs the financial predictability and stability to invest directly in the Canadian food chain. With permanent funding, the ability to scale innovative local initiatives that empower low-income families, seniors and remote communities to directly purchase fresh, locally grown food becomes a possibility.
With the upcoming national food security strategy, I look forward to discussing how, together, we can strengthen food security and ensure access to local food production for all people living in Canada through a strong and effective food policy.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.