Food, nutrition & public markets

In recent years Toronto has been through an acute food crisis, which tested food banks, community support networks and the city itself. We are still in that emergency, alongside a deeply entrenched, long-term food affordability challenge that reduces individual and family access to nutritious food. On top of this, trade disruptions are placing the food network under additional stress.

“Too many people can no longer afford to eat properly or feed their families reliably. The solution is to be more ambitious — to lean in and empower Toronto’s strong not-for-profit and entrepreneurial sectors. Toronto should have food banks, school meal programmes and public markets that are second to none.”

From Evergreen Brick Works and the Dufferin Grove Organic and Cabbagetown farmers’ markets to the Thorncliffe Community Market and Scarborough’s Merchants’ Flea Market, public markets anchor neighbourhoods — giving expression to the diversity of Toronto’s makers and producers, and driving social connection, especially for newcomers.

160

public markets in Toronto todayThe city has been working on a market strategy since 2023

320

the target by 2030 — double the networkDelivered through a Public Markets Action Plan

731

local shops and businesses lost between 1989 and 2019From 2,137 to 1,406 — about a third of the total

1. 01

   Ensure basic food security

   Strengthen cooperation with the Daily Bread Food Bank, Second Harvest, FoodReach, Toronto’s shelter network and grassroots not-for-profit initiatives — to extend their reach and improve the quality of what they are able to provide, including for unhoused Torontonians.

2. 02

   Lift beneficiaries out of poverty

   Food bank use is a symptom. Press the federal and provincial governments to raise benefit levels — the Canada Disability Benefit, Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program — so that recipients can afford nutritious food without a parallel charitable system.

3. 03

   Healthy meals for students

   Work with the federal and provincial governments to make the Toronto Student Nutrition Programme universally accessible and sustainable, covering hot lunches by next year.

4. 04

   Local producers

   Increase the share of local produce and Canadian food products in shelter, school and city supply chains — which supports the agricultural hinterland the city has always depended on, and shortens the chain between grower and plate.

5. 05

   Toronto Public Markets

   Finalise a Public Markets Action Plan to double the city’s existing network of 160 public markets by 2030.

   Establish the Toronto Public Markets Corporation as a one-stop shop for vendors and suppliers, operating self-financed through retail partnerships rather than as a draw on the city’s budget.

6. 06

   St Patrick’s Market

   The TPMC would be mandated to reopen St Patrick’s Market on Queen Street West as a public market, honouring the conditions of D’Arcy Boulton Jr’s 1836 bequest.

7. 07

   Tech stack and Canadian digital sovereignty

   Establish an all-Canadian technology infrastructure for permitting, payments and vendor management, built on Canadian firms — so that the systems the market network runs on are not a dependency on suppliers outside the country.

8. 08

   Zoning for food security

   Champion zoning changes that enable neighbourhood food access and connect local producers to the people buying from them — reducing costs and widening choice and nutrition for all Torontonians.

9. 09

   Neighbourhood retail and services

   Over three decades up to 2019, Toronto lost about a third of its local neighbourhood commercial establishments: from 2,137 in 1989 to 1,406 in 2019, a loss of 731 stores and other local businesses.

   Expand the city’s existing retail initiatives, introduced in 2025, to reverse that decline.

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