Article – As Calgary’s morning frost painted my windshield last Tuesday, I found myself stopping by the Marlborough Elementary School in the northeast. What I witnessed there has been weighing on my mind ever since.
Twenty-three children huddled around cafeteria tables, quietly eating breakfast before classes. The volunteer coordinator, Elaine Mehta, pulled me aside with a grim expression. “We’re serving 42% more children than last year, James. The numbers just keep climbing.”
This scene is playing out across our city at alarming rates. The Breakfast Club of Canada reports that child food insecurity in Calgary has surged by nearly 37% since early 2023, outpacing the national average of 33%. Their latest assessment paints a troubling picture of hunger among our youngest residents.
“We’re seeing families who never needed support before,” explains Martina Holden, regional coordinator for the Breakfast Club’s Alberta operations. “Working parents with steady jobs who simply can’t stretch their dollars far enough anymore.”
The statistics are sobering. According to data from Statistics Canada, approximately one in four Calgary children now lives in a food-insecure household. This represents the highest rate our city has experienced in over fifteen years of tracking.
City Councillor Kourtney Penner calls the situation “a quiet crisis happening right under our noses.” During our conversation at City Hall, she noted that the impacts extend far beyond empty stomachs. “Teachers tell us they can spot the hungry kids immediately. They can’t focus, they’re irritable, and their grades suffer.”
The causes behind this surge are multifaceted but interconnected. Calgary’s housing costs have increased by 24% since 2021, while grocery prices continue their upward climb. The average family grocery bill has increased by $1,200 annually compared to pre-pandemic spending.
Food Banks Alberta reports that 38% of their clients are now children, up from 31% in 2022. “We’re distributing emergency hampers at unprecedented rates,” says their executive director, Arianna Thompson. “Our resources are stretched to the breaking point.”
What makes this situation particularly concerning is that food insecurity in childhood has long-lasting effects. Dr. Melanie Carson from the University of Calgary’s Department of Pediatrics has studied this issue extensively. “The nutritional deficits experienced during critical developmental periods can impact cognitive function, immune response, and even emotional regulation for years to come.”
I’ve spent nearly a decade covering Calgary’s economic ups and downs, but this feels different. The faces behind these statistics aren’t just in our city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods anymore. Middle-class families in communities like Auburn Bay, Cranston, and Signal Hill are increasingly accessing emergency food support.
Take the Richardson family in Coventry Hills. Mark works full-time in construction while Sarah juggles part-time retail work with caring for their three children. “We’ve never needed help before,” Sarah told me, requesting I change their name for privacy. “But after the mortgage renewal hit with higher rates, plus the kids growing and eating more… something had to give.”
The city’s response has been a patchwork of initiatives. Mayor Jyoti Gondek recently announced a $2.3 million emergency fund to bolster school nutrition programs. While welcome, most frontline workers I’ve spoken with say it barely scratches the surface of the need.
Community-based solutions are emerging to fill the gaps. The Calgary Food Security Network has mobilized over 300 volunteers to run neighborhood food sharing programs. Faith communities across denominations are converting unused spaces into food distribution centers.
Amara Sumar manages one such program at the Genesis Centre in the northeast. “We’re serving twice the number of families compared to last year,” she notes while distributing fresh produce donated by local grocers. “But we’re also teaching cooking classes and helping people maximize their food budgets.”
Experts warn that without systemic changes, the problem will likely worsen. Economist Trevor Patterson from Mount Royal University points to the combination of stagnant wages and persistent inflation as a “perfect storm for food insecurity.”
“When housing consumes 40-50% of household income, food becomes the flexible expense,” Patterson explains. “Families can’t skip rent, but they can skip meals or buy cheaper, less nutritious options.”
What’s particularly troubling is how normalized child hunger has become. Principal Leanne Syrotuck at Patrick Airlie School tells me that Monday mornings are the busiest for their breakfast program. “Many kids haven’t had a proper meal since Friday’s lunch at school,” she says quietly as we watch volunteers prepare morning toast.
The solutions aren’t simple, but they are necessary. Food security advocates are calling for expanded school nutrition programs, increased social assistance rates, and more affordable housing options. As Councillor Penner emphasized, “This isn’t just a poverty issue anymore. It’s affecting working families across every ward in Calgary.”
As our city grapples with this growing crisis, the question becomes not just how we feed hungry children today, but how we address the underlying causes creating this hunger in the first place. Because a city that can’t feed its children is a city that can’t build its future.
In my 14 years covering Calgary’s evolving story, few issues have felt more urgent or more fundamental. The measure of our community may well be how we respond when our smallest citizens go hungry.
