This is how much the cost of food has gone up in Toronto this year

Pretty much everything in Toronto is expensive, and costs seem to be endlessly increasing. 

We already know prices in the real estate market are constantly going up, and it seems the cost of food in this city is no different. 

Earlier this week, the city of Toronto released the Toronto Public Health 2020 Operating Budget and 2020-2029 Capital Budget and Plan. 

The document outlines a mass of information from the Medical Officer of Health for the Board of Health Budget Committee's consideration. 

Hidden within all the background information is an astonishing fact: the cost of food has gone up by an estimated 7.5 per cent this past year. 

Yikes. 

Food prices are quite insane in Toronto currently. I’m on a protest diet of cheap shit!

— Katie is open for cover work! (@KatieSawatsky) June 12, 2019

The number comes from the 2019 Nutritious Food Basket benchmark, which is based on the cost of 67 food items priced from 12 stores. 

In the report, Toronto Public Health (TPH) recommends that the city increase the municipal share of the Student Nutrition Program by $1,099.5 because of that fact.

Student nutrition programs are community-based meal and snack programs in schools that are run locally by students, parents and volunteers.

Children should not be going to class hungry. The student nutrition program has been hugely effective, leveraging volunteers and costing less than $2 per meal. With so many children living in poverty in Toronto, this program allows many of them to focus on learning, not hunger.

— Kristyn Wong-Tam (@kristynwongtam) April 30, 2019

They're funded through multiple sources including municipal, provincial, corporate and other grants, as well as parent/student donations and local fundraising/campaign events.

Because of the substantial increase in food costs over the past year, TPH recommends increasing the total program budget to $15,759.6 gross and net.

Whichever way you spin it, an increase of 7.5 per cent in just one year is a lot — so it's likely not just the the Student Nutrition Program that'll need an increased food budget for the coming year.