Next week, leaders from across Canada will gather in Montréal for the inaugural Food Insecurity Summit, hosted by Food Banks Canada | Banques alimentaires Canada. It is a timely and urgent moment.

In March 2024, more than two million visits were made to food banks in this country. This was the highest monthly total ever recorded. That marks a 6 percent increase from 2023 and a staggering 90 percent increase from 2019 (Source: Food Banks Canada, HungerCount 2024).

One in three of those visits was made by a child. Nearly one in five food bank users were employed, up significantly from just 12 percent in 2019. The majority of users, roughly 70 percent, lived in market-rental housing, with 40 percent relying on disability or social assistance as their main income (Source: Food Banks Canada, HungerCount 2024).

These are not fringe cases. They are families, students, seniors, and newcomers doing everything right and still falling short.

As CEO of FHCP, I represent Canada’s food, health, and consumer products manufacturing sector. Our members are companies that produce the essential goods Canadians rely on every day, from food and beverages to hygiene, home care, and health products. Behind the scenes, they are also stepping up to support food banks and community partners across the country.

We have seen leadership through programs that align production with food bank needs, donations of logistics capacity and cold storage, efforts to divert surplus through zero waste-to-landfill commitments, and integration of food access into broader sustainability and ESG strategies. This is not about writing cheques at year-end. It is about structural engagement, operational support, and long-term partnership.

But we know that industry cannot do it alone. And food banks, heroic as they are, cannot carry this burden indefinitely.

What we need now is bold, shared action that moves us from charity to systems change. That means:

• A national infrastructure plan to support food distribution, particularly in rural and remote regions.
• Clear, harmonized regulations and tax incentives that make food recovery easier and more attractive for businesses.
• Data-sharing platforms that allow food producers, distributors, and food banks to coordinate in real time and match surplus with need.
• A recognition that food insecurity is driven primarily by income precarity and housing affordability.
• A permanent national partnership table that brings government, Indigenous leaders, business, and civil society together to co-develop and track long-term solutions.

Many of these priorities are echoed in the Government of Canada’s National Pathways strategy (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2023) and in the Business Council of Canada’s 2024 report calling for bold, transformative action. In Ontario, Feed Ontario reports that nearly two-thirds of food bank clients are renters and nearly half spend over 50 percent of their income on housing (Feed Ontario, Hunger Report 2024).

The solutions are within reach. The partners are ready. But we must stop treating food insecurity as a charitable challenge. We need to begin addressing it as a national failure and an opportunity to do better.

Next week’s summit is a chance to shift the narrative. Let us use it to drive results, not just reports. The food, health, and consumer products sector is ready to lead, ready to collaborate, and ready to help build a Canada where everyone can access food with dignity.

We invite others to join us. https://foodbankscanada.ca/

This op-ed was originally published on LinkedIn.