‘Chips for dinner’: Montreal post-secondary students struggling with food insecurity

More Montrealers are turning to food banks for help, with nearly a million requests per month. That includes many students.

“Food insecurity can touch absolutely anyone. It can be family, it can be friends,” said Maggie Borowiec, the director of philanthropy at Moisson Montréal. “Most people don’t realize, no one has that tattooed on their face, it’s really something that is oftentimes invisible.

“I’ve been here eight years and I have never seen it this intense in terms of the need, this is really a record.”

Food Banks of Quebec (FBQ) says the demand for food bank assistance has skyrocketed, with the increase in the cost of living and prices at the grocery store hurting many.

The Montreal boroughs with the highest demand overall are Ville-Marie, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension.

Students now account for 14 per cent of food bank clients. Food bank use by post-secondary students increased by 540 per cent between 2011 and 2023.

Experts are calling it a silent crisis.

“I think it speaks to the times when the cost of living is really so high that it’s out of whack with people’s earnings,” Borowiec said. “It’s not an issue of lack of food, it’s a lack of resources, it’s an issue of poverty. The root causes of food insecurity are poverty.”

Moisson Montréal’s 2024 report shows a 76 per cent increase in the demand for food assistance in Montreal in the last five years. Borowiec says one-in-three three food agencies have had to turn people away as they’re maxed out.

“This is an alarming trend,” she said. “And one of the recommendations from our agencies is to strengthen the minimum wage, because right now it is really not a living wage. It is not enough for people to make ends meet.”

Antoine Dervieux, president of the Federation of Quebec Collegial Students (FECQ) spoke candidly about his struggles with accessing food, saying students don’t want to go to food banks because then they may not be seen as a “successful adult.”

“We need to have solutions to make sure these solutions can last longer and give more, can be able to help these people that need food,” Dervieux said. “We’re not talking about lacking money to buy an iPhone. We’re not talking about lacking money to go on a vacation. We’re talking about people that are struggling to have food.”

Dervieux adds that once college organizations bring food to their fridge, a lineup persists with the demand for food from students continuing to rise. The Moisson Montréal report says students are increasingly forced to turn to food pantry services.

“This is not something we should normalize,” Dervieux said. “This is not normal. Having 100,000 students waiting in lines for food shelters is not a normal situation.”

CityNews spoke to Concordia University students who agreed they too are seeing a growing issue with food insecurity. They say solutions are needed moving forward.

“I’m a little surprised that it’s not more than 14 per cent,” Aurora said. “Because as students, especially if you’re supporting yourself, like paying your own rent or anything like that, it’s really impossible to continuously have a very healthy relationship with food.”

“Groceries are expensive and with time and work, I think to properly feed yourself like a healthy diet consistently, you would need two part-time jobs here, which is very hard to manage with school,” added Leila.

“You’re stressed out, you don’t even have the funds to properly plan out and create a diet that gives you everything you need,” she said. “(So) I know so many students who will have chips for dinner.”