Photo credit: CBC
A Mississauga food bank says its clients included nearly 13,000 children last year and it is calling on all levels of government to address food insecurity.
CBC reports that Vipin Saini, executive director of Seva Food Bank, said Tuesday that he thinks current economic circumstances are leading to an increasing number of children needing its services and more young adults struggling to make ends meet.
He pointed to “incredibly trying times,” which he said include rising rents, stagnant wages and a growing precarity among newcomers and seniors.
The food bank, led by the local Sikh community, serves people in Malton and Cooksville.
“We are seeing more and more people struggling with the day to days. We’re not just talking about newcomers,” Saini said in an interview Tuesday.
“We are talking about folks with jobs, people who work in the gig economy and who may have multiple jobs. We’re seeing seniors, lot of seniors, which is very, very difficult to see. And we’re seeing young people as well. It’s across the board.”
Seva Food Bank data shows that it served 46,373 in 2025 across all demographics. Of this number, 12,972 were children, meaning that more than one in four individuals served, or about 28% was a child.
“It’s horrifying. This should not be happening in this country,” Saini said.
Across its two locations, the food bank provided more than 1 million kilograms of culturally appropriate food in all during the year,” the report says.
Meghan Nicholls, CEO of Food Banks Mississauga, said Tuesday that her assessment of the situation is that people used to visit a food ban three to four times a year, when there was an emergency or sudden financial crisis in their household.
Nicholls said people are now visiting a food bank 11 or 12 times a year because every single month is an emergency. Food Banks Mississauga is the central food bank for the city, organizing a network of 65 agencies in Mississauga.
