*This article is sponsored*
We’ve all noticed it. Steep increases in food prices have contributed to a rising cost of living over the past few years. If you’re fortunate, once the sticker shock of a suddenly more expensive cut of meat or bag of produce wears off, you can still make your purchase without worrying about how you’ll manage to also pay your rent, mortgage, or utility bills.
But for those less fortunate, hunger and food insecurity have become a worsening reality. A reality found in your community. The Ottawa Mission’s food truck program helps address this reality by handing out over 10,000 meals per week at 38 food truck stops spread out across Ottawa.
This includes stops serving meals and handing out groceries in pockets of Westboro, Carlington, Island Park, Tunney’s Pasture, Little Italy, and Centretown West.
Also called Mobile Mission Meals, The Mission’s food truck program began as a pandemic-era solution to feed the vulnerable community who couldn’t access The Ottawa Mission’s shelter kitchen. While the pandemic waned, inflation, the cost of living, and food prices rose, and the food truck program was expanded to meet a growing need of the community.
A need that sees single parents, the elderly, those on fixed disability incomes, and even children lining up at Mission food trucks to ensure that they don’t go hungry.
“I’ve got two kids at home and I’m raising them on my own. These meals help us out so much.” – Blake, at a food truck stop in Centretown West.
With grocery prices up a reported 22% over the past three years, and average rents jumping a reported 20% between 2020 and 2024, many are facing the impossible choice between a roof over their heads versus a full stomach. The Ottawa Mission’s food trucks help people avoid having to make that desperate and terrible decision.
Indeed, increasing numbers of your neighbours now have to rely on meals from The Mission’s food trucks to get by: someone who works full time but can no longer afford to nutritiously feed their children, a retiree whose fixed pension isn’t stretching as far as it used to, or a child on their way home from school stopping at a food truck because food at home is scarce.
“Oh, it’s absolutely essential for me. Especially in the last two weeks of each month. I’m on ODSP (Ontario Disability Support Program), and it was tough for me to even pay for my hydro bill this past winter. Having these meals help make ends meet.” – Helen, a senior who uses an electric wheelchair, when asked about The Mission’s food truck program.
The trends of high inflation and food prices mean that hunger and food insecurity are no longer an issue found only in the downtown core of Ottawa.
The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study is an organization which uses data from Statistics Canada to present socioeconomic insights on the 100+ neighbourhoods found in the Ottawa area.
According to their reporting, Westboro, Hintonburg/Mechanicsville, Carlington, and West Centretown/Little Italy have a high percentage of low-income status residents. Additionally, each of these neighbourhoods also land in the top ten for highest percentage of low-income status seniors.
“This food goes a long way. The price of everything now is going up and up. I’m 70 and retired…I need these meals to get by.” – a grateful client at a Mission food truck stop outside the Van Lang Field House, in Westboro.
You may not realize it, but people in your community are going hungry. And while hunger is here, it can’t hide.
You can help The Ottawa Mission provide nutritious meals to those in need within the community that you live, work, and play in; within the community that you love. Please contact Kimberley Banks at kbanks@ottawamission.com if you want more information on The Mission’s food truck program and learn how you can help bring warm, nutritious meals to your neighbours in need.
Visit the Ottawa Mission website to learn more and find a food truck stop near you.
