More families with children relying on food banks: Harvest Manitoba report

ManitobaMore families with children under the age of 18 are relying on food banks across the province to make ends meet, according to Harvest Manitoba’s annual survey of food bank users. Nearly two-thirds of food bank users have post-secondary education, report saysLauren Scott · CBC News · Posted: Dec 04, 2025 12:36 PM EST | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Harvest Manitoba’s 2025 Harvest Voices report suggests that 45 per cent of households that accessed food banks this year have children under the age of 18. (Safiyah Marhnouj/CBC)More families with children under the age of 18 are relying on food banks across the province to make ends meet, according to Harvest Manitoba’s annual survey of users. The 2025 Harvest Voices report suggests that the average household size of food bank users increased to about three people from two over the last five years. Forty-five per cent of households surveyed have children under the age of 18. The latest report analyzed 597 completed surveys from surveys of food bank users. Manitoba Harvest says it has 95 per cent confidence in the results, with a four per cent margin of error. About 60,000 people access food banks in Manitoba every month, the report says. An estimated six in 10 food bank users in 2025 have some post-secondary education — a dramatic increase from one-third of users in 2020, the report found. Meanwhile, the number of food bank clients with less than a high school diploma dropped to 13 per cent from 32. Manitoba Harvest says the changing educational background of food bank users suggests that schooling is “no longer a reliable pathway out of poverty.”Increasing costs of food, housing and other essential living expenses have put further pressure on low-income families, the non-profit’s report says. Manitoba Harvest’s report includes several recommendations for government policies that would ease financial burden on food bank users, including more money for employment and income assistance, increasing financial support for people with disabilities, and investing more in affordable housing geared to income. ABOUT THE AUTHORLauren Scott is a Winnipeg-based reporter with CBC Manitoba. They hold a master’s degree in computational and data journalism, and have previously worked for the Hamilton Spectator and The Canadian Press.