Ontario Premier Doug Ford, left, and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow help pack and sort food donations at the Daily Bread Food Bank’s spring public food sort in Toronto, on Saturday, April 4, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan
By The Canadian Press
Apr 4, 2026 | 1:43 PM
Toronto’s largest food bank says it’s been dealing with crisis after crisis as the war in Iran makes it even more expensive to feed the thousands of food insecure Torontonians who rely on it.
Neil Hetherington, CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank, says food bank visits have skyrocketed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but recent rising gas prices are adding fuel to the fire.
He says it costs 50 cents more per litre to fill up the trucks that deliver food to the more than 200 food banks and meal programs Daily Bread serves — all this at a time when food bank usage is higher than it’s ever been.
Daily Bread says there have been more than 920,000 visits to member food banks since the year started, surpassing the number of visits seen at this time last year.