The cost of living crunch is taking a bite out of household budgets in Simcoe Muskoka.
The 2025 Nutritious Food Basket survey by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) looked at the cost of eating a healthy diet and included 61 staple food items such as milk, eggs and bread.
The survey found that a family of four with two adults and two children, ages 8 and 14, would need to spend $1,282.8 per month to afford these essentials, while a single-person household would require $445.92.
“When household income is too low, people cannot cover their basic expenses,” says Vanessa Hurley, Public Health Nutritionist and Registered Dietitian at SMDHU, in a news release. “While food insecurity is impacting people with lower incomes, those who have unstable or insecure work, people who rent, single parents with kids, those receiving social assistance, and the number of middle-income households reporting that they are also feeling the squeeze, doubled in 2024 in comparison to 2022 and 2023. And having a job does not guarantee food security. In our province, more than half of households that have income from employment are food insecure.”
The health unit says when food costs are considered alongside rent and total household income, it becomes clear that many individuals and families in Simcoe Muskoka are unable to meet their basis need, let alone any other expenses needed for daily living.
"A family of four receiving Ontario Works benefits would need to spend 97 percent of their income just on food and rent alone. A parent raising two children receiving Ontario Works would need to spend 93 percent of their income on food and rent. For a single adult on Ontario Works, covering these two essentials is impossible, consuming 168 percent of their income, leaving no money for other basic needs such as utilities, transportation, clothing, phone and internet service, medications, school supplies or child care" the health unit said in a news release.
According to recent data from Public Health Ontario (PHO), household food insecurity in Simcoe Muskoka is worsening, with 26 percent or approximately 60,000 households experiencing some level of household food insecurity from 2023 to 2024. This is in line with what is being seen at the provincial level and at the national level; the rates are at a record high.
“Household food insecurity is not an access to food issue it is an income issue. Vital food charity and emergency food programs do not address household food insecurity. The growing household food insecurity crisis requires action by all levels of government to put in place sustainable, income-based solutions that put more money in people’s pockets for food and other basic needs,” says Hurley.
