Posted On: June 28, 2025, Posted By: Emmy Kelly, NewmarketToday, Original Article.
Rent eats first.
For thousands of individuals and families in Canada, these three words encapsulate a harsh reality. Housing expenses must be paid, regardless of the cost. Often, that cost is food, skipping meals, or visiting food banks and pantries. When rent takes priority, nutritious meals become negotiable, leading to a harsh cycle of food insecurity that deepens poverty, threatens health, and destabilizes lives.
All too often, groceries are skipped. Meals are stretched or missed entirely. More and more people turn to food banks and community pantries, not because they want to, but because they have no other choice.
According to Food Banks Canada and Statistics Canada food insecurity affects one in five households in Canada. Over 6.9 million Canadians, including nearly 1.8 million children, struggle to access enough nutritious food.
In York Region alone, food bank usage has more than doubled since 2019, and this isn’t just among the unemployed. Many users identify as low-income homeowners or working renters; a disappointing reminder that employment and homeownership no longer guarantee food security.
The connection between housing instability and food insecurity is mutual and tragic. Expensive housing can make individuals skip meals to keep their homes. In turn, inadequate nutrition and chronic hunger can cause long-term health problems both mental and physical, making it harder to retain employment, manage household stability, or pay rent on time. It’s a reinforcing loop, where one challenge feeds the other.
At Blue Door, we see these challenges up close every day. We work with individuals and families who are forced into impossible decisions between groceries and gas, rent and school lunches, heat or dinner. The effects of these tradeoffs ripple across generations. When health suffers and stress skyrockets, stability slips away, and poverty becomes even harder to escape.
In response, community-based programs continue to step up in powerful ways. For example, Blue Door’s Construct social enterprise provides trades-based training and paid employment to individuals facing barriers to work. Participants earn a training wage while building skills that lead to long-term careers offering a bridge between crisis and stability. Programs like Construct help close the gap between income and basic needs, enabling participants to afford both food and housing without having to choose one over the other.
But while programs make a meaningful difference, they are not a replacement for system-wide change. They are part of the solution though not the whole. The scale of food and housing insecurity in Canada demands more than localized responses. It demands systemic change.
To truly break the cycle, we need action at every level. Issues of poverty, hunger and housing instability are not separate issues. They are deeply intertwined and must be addressed together.
When members of our community can’t afford food because “rent eats first,” it impacts more than just health. It affects the ability to learn, work, and participate in our communities. The long-term effects are devastating, not just for individuals, but for the resilience of entire neighbourhoods.
Community responses like mobile food banks, affordable housing initiatives, and employment programs are essential lifelines. But without deeper policy change to address rising rents, stagnant wages, and inadequate social supports, they will always be trying to catch up to a growing crisis.
A secure future begins with both a roof overhead and food on the table. It’s time to act like both are essential because they are.
As we continue our work, we’re also seeing hopeful data: when housing is stabilized, incomes tend to rise. With security comes the opportunity to plan, to grow, and to thrive. The ripple effects are real. When individuals secure steady employment and stable housing, they are far less likely to rely on food banks. Families are able to rest. Children can concentrate on their studies. And communities become stronger and more connected.
That’s the kind of change we all benefit from.
Right now, Blue Door is nearing the end of our three-month Endless Impact Campaign, an initiative where every monthly donation will be matched to double your impact. Your support helps our team build individualized, practical plans with the people we serve, focused on breaking the cycle of poverty, not just managing it.
Be a part of this change.
Share. Like. Donate. Or visit us to learn more at https://bluedoor.ca/programs.
Together, we can build a future where no one has to choose between dinner and dignity.