Food bank visits in Alberta have more than doubled since before the pandemic, with a new national report recording 230,196 visits in the province during March 2026.
Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount 2026, released Wednesday, October 21, shows Alberta visits increased 156.3 per cent compared with March 2019. The total was also 9.3 per cent higher than in March 2025.
The Alberta figures include 86,055 visits attributed to children. These are recorded visits, not a count of different children or individual food bank clients.
Demand rises across Canada
Across the country, the report recorded 2,355,075 visits to food banks in March, a national high. That represents an increase of 8.7 per cent from the previous year and 116.8 per cent since March 2019.
The report’s figures reflect usage during the month of March, rather than the entire year. Food Banks Canada counts each time someone receives a food hamper and also includes household members served. People who access assistance more than once in a month may therefore be counted multiple times.
Housing costs and household finances
Food Banks Canada links persistent demand to growing pressure on household budgets, including housing, groceries, transportation and inadequate income supports. Nationally, it estimates food prices have increased about 30 per cent since 2021, with housing costs up 28 per cent and transportation costs nearly 24 per cent.
The report also finds that 17.9 per cent of food bank clients nationally report employment income as their main income source, compared with about 12 per cent in 2019. About 71.8 per cent of clients nationally live in market rental housing. Those are Canada-wide findings, not Alberta-specific percentages.
Food Banks Canada calls for changes to income supports, housing policy and food distribution infrastructure to address the pressures behind sustained food bank demand.
The report's provincial breakdown does not include separate figures for Calgary, so the 156.3 per cent increase describes Alberta as a whole.