Just Food Calls for Dedicated Emergency Food Response Funding at City Committee

On Thursday, November 20, Kate Veinot delivered a delegation to Ottawa’s Emergency Preparedness Committee on behalf of Just Food (core OCFP partner) and the Emergency Food Security Task Force (consisting of several OCFP partners). Their message was direct and urgent: the 2026 City Budget must include dedicated funding to support the nonprofit and community organizations that the City’s Emergency Food Security Plan relies on.

Veinot highlighted that the City’s emergency response framework assumes food banks, community kitchens, neighbourhood-serving groups, and distribution hubs will mobilize during crises to ensure residents can continue to access food when systems are disrupted. However, unlike other emergency response services such as fire, paramedics, public works, or police, these organizations currently receive no designated funding to support emergency readiness or response.

They emphasized that organizations addressing food insecurity are already stretched thin. Inflation, rising housing costs, and increased demand have left frontline services operating at or beyond capacity with limited staff, volunteer fatigue, and budgets that barely sustain daily operations. To ask these same organizations to take on additional emergency responsibilities without resources for staffing, coordination, food purchasing, transportation, utilities, or equipment, Veinot argued, is “to set up the system for failure at the very moment residents need it to succeed.”

Just Food called on the Committee to:

• Add a dedicated budget line in 2026 for emergency food response

• Fund the staffing, coordination, infrastructure, and food procurement required for community organizations to activate effectively during crises

• Work with the sector over the next year to finalize a transparent and sustainable funding model prior to the next emergency

Councillor Devine responded by noting that he would follow up with City staff regarding the request for dedicated funding for emergency food response capacity.

As Veinot concluded, emergency food access is a core public safety function, and if Ottawa intends to rely on nonprofit partners during emergencies, the City must invest in making sure they can deliver when it matters most.

You can watch the delegation here: