There are five of us in our little group, spread across the country, from coast to coast. As well as Amanda and me, members include Elaine Power, Jennifer Black, and Jennifer Brady. We are academics, activists, and artists, and we are all concerned about food insecurity. During the pandemic, initially—before Covid income supports kicked in with their mild protective effect—we were seeing increased rates of food insecurity among Canadian children and their families. These rates have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels and are unlikely to do so due to recent global and national events. The five of us talked and talked. We were frustrated that people were expected to rely on charity—food banks, soup kitchens, and the like—to get the food they needed. We talked about how all the evidence about food insecurity points to a clear need for income-based solutions and social supports, such as a guaranteed income, and we talked about how governments have had the evidence of this need for years, but for some reason the evidence alone hasn’t been enough to inspire change. Eventually, we decided to tell stories about food insecurity so that readers could get to know and understand the issue in a heart-felt way, and not just with their minds. At that point we started calling our group the Hungry Stories project (https://hungrystories.ca/).
The first book Amanda and I created is a graphic novel for middle-grade kids. In Shy Cat and the Stuff-the-Bus Challenge, readers get to know Mila and her best friend Kit. Through the course of the story, Mila learns more about her friend, learns more about the unfairness of some kids not always having enough to eat, is frustrated by the lack of answers from the adults around her, and tries to work out—through her Shy Cat comics and Lego creations—what on earth she might be able to do about that. In the end, both kids work together to create a comic that offers a simple, child-sized solution to this seemingly intractable problem, and to inspire the other children in their class—and their teacher—to pay more attention to the issue and to ask more “good questions.” Mila comes to understand that she can’t solve the problem of Kit’s hunger on her own, that solutions come about because people join together and work to make change.
Kit is only one of the over two million Canadian children living with food insecurity. Racialized children and Indigenous children are more likely to experience food insecurity, and even some middle-income families are now struggling to put food on the table. Nearly two million, four hundred thousand children lived in food insecure households in 2025, with over half a million of those in the most severe situations. It’s hard to imagine that number of hungry children—though I ask that you pause in your reading for a moment to think of them. Think of their longing, and their confusion, and their sense of insecurity, and their painful, rumbling bellies. Think about how these early experiences can follow children their whole lives: physically, psychologically, emotionally, and financially....
It’s important to donate money, food, or other resources to food banks or community gardens or community food centres—of course it is. But it’s even more important to recognize that these are short-term, stop-gap, band-aid solutions to the problem of food insecurity. More is required of us than making “shelf stable” donations. Consider volunteering at a local hot meal program—such as a soup kitchen—on a regular basis, not just Christmas Day, and take the opportunity to talk to people using the services, hear their stories, and recognize their humanity. Look for organizations that do anti-poverty advocacy work and serve broader community needs. Find a list of such national organizations below and look for similar regional or local ones where you live. We must also ensure that our governments—at all levels—know that we expect to see the development of income security policy designed to address the problem, including (but not only!) to more narrowly target the federal Canada Child Benefit to lower income households and to make the benefits more generous for those households. Join with others advocating for the implementation of a basic income to ensure that everyone can meet their essential needs with dignity.
Canadian Anti-poverty Organizations:
Basic Income Canada (https://basicincomecanada.org/)
Canada Without Poverty (https://cwp-csp.ca/)
Coalition Canada (https://basicincomecoalition.ca/en/)
RightToFood (https://righttofood.ca/)
For interested youth there is the Basic Income Youth Collective (https://www.basicincomeyouth.ca/)
Even one child without enough to eat should be more than enough to ensure action, shouldn’t it? In that sense, the numbers aren’t as important as taking the time to learn, understand, and feel the weight of the food insecurity problem. Not to become discouraged, but to become resolved toward action. On this World Hunger Day, let’s make a commitment to work together on solving food insecurity at a structural level.
~Dian Day
