Right to Food - Not Charity on International Human Rights Day
Isabella Falsetti, Dec 10, 2025
VANCOUVER, B.C — 24.4 percent of British Columbians — 1.3 million people — experienced food insecurity in 2024 compared to 15.8 percent in 2018. Food Banks BC reported that 1.1 million people visited their sites in the first half of 2025. In a country as wealthy as Canada and in a province with the nation’s highest rates of household wealth, these levels of food insecurity are inexcusable.
Article 25 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care,” though there is no legislation at any level of government to ensure the right to food is being met free of charity. More specifically, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights stipulates that state parties have “the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil (facilitate and provide) the [Right to Adequate Food],” cited in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Right to Food Guidelines.
The solution rests in government action. Yet the same community and sustainability initiatives that would enable resilient local food systems to thrive are being defunded. On November 25, Vancouver city councillors passed a 2026 budget that includes a freeze on property taxes and a $50 million increase to the police budget, with significant cuts to arts, culture, and community services and sustainability and planning departments. Meanwhile, food systems funding represented a mere .03% of the city budget.
Grassroots food organizations are experiencing strain in both directions: increased demand for emergency food resources and decreased core funding — including from the municipal government — that allows their programs to function, which is only exacerbating the root issue of food insecurity. In their 2026 Budget Brief, Advancing the Right to Food, the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition calls on the City of Vancouver to meaningfully create funding mechanisms that support Indigenous food systems, community food organizations, and food recovery programs.
Municipalities across B.C. have begun to recognize housing as a human right, though it remains to be seen how this will translate into policy action. If the City of Vancouver is to follow suit and declare food a human right, councillors must allocate sufficient funding to sustain community food systems work and not charity models alone, such as food banks. Only then will it be possible to build resilient food programs.
Food is a human right that must be enshrined into legislation at all levels of governments. Failure to do so is a failure to fulfill basic human rights and respect people’s agency and dignity.
