Food in Barrie: what it costs, who goes without, and what grows here

A basic healthy diet cost a family of four in Simcoe Muskoka $1,282.89 a month in 2025, by the health unit's count, and more than a quarter of the region's households, 26.3%, were food insecure in 2023–24, up from 14.4% four years earlier. The Barrie Food Bank recorded 82,373 visits in its 2024–25 year, more than three times as many as five years before. Simcoe County counts fewer farms each census, and in 2024 council cancelled the permanent public market it had planned for the waterfront.

What does healthy food cost in Barrie?

The health unit's Nutritious Food Basket: a basic healthy diet for two adults and two children for a month, priced by the health unit at grocery stores across Simcoe Muskoka.

It is the cost of eating well, not what families spend. The series starts in 2022 because Ontario changed how the basket is priced that year, and the health unit says 2022 figures are not comparable with earlier ones.

How this is counted

What a basic healthy diet costs a family of two adults and two children for a month, priced by the health unit at grocery stores across the region. It is the cost of eating well, not what families actually spend. This is Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s definition.

Sources: Healthy food unaffordable for many Simcoe Muskoka residents (news release), with the Nutritious Food Basket data notes, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, dated February 21, 2023.

Original document. Gives the 2022 basket cost, $1,159.92 for a family of four. The health unit's data notes add that 2022 was the pilot year of a new costing tool and that "NFB data obtained in 2022 is not comparable to previous years". HealthSTATS Economic Characteristics dashboard, data exports: Nutritious Food Basket and Household Food Insecurity, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, dated October 29, 2025. Original document. Archived copy. The monthly cost of the Nutritious Food Basket for Simcoe Muskoka, and the health unit's affordability scenarios (income, average rent from CMHC, the basket, and what is left). Household food insecurity is Public Health Ontario's snapshot from Statistics Canada's Canadian Income Survey, with 95% confidence intervals. Figures from 2022 on are not comparable with earlier years: Ontario changed its costing tool in 2022. All retrieved October 11, 2026.

Who can afford it?

The health unit's 2025 scenarios: each household's income from work or benefits, the average rent for a unit its size, and the cost of a healthy diet, as the health unit prints them.

Over 100% means rent and food alone cost more than the household receives. Each tooltip gives the dollars.

A single adult on Ontario Works receives $892 a month, less than the $1,056 average rent for a bachelor unit, and is $609.92 short once a healthy diet is added. A family of four on Ontario Works has $93.11 left once rent and food are paid.

Source: HealthSTATS Economic Characteristics dashboard, data exports: Nutritious Food Basket and Household Food Insecurity, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, dated October 29, 2025.

Original document. Archived copy. The monthly cost of the Nutritious Food Basket for Simcoe Muskoka, and the health unit's affordability scenarios (income, average rent from CMHC, the basket, and what is left). Household food insecurity is Public Health Ontario's snapshot from Statistics Canada's Canadian Income Survey, with 95% confidence intervals. Figures from 2022 on are not comparable with earlier years: Ontario changed its costing tool in 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2026.

How many households go without?

Simcoe Muskoka Ontario

Households reporting any food insecurity, from worrying about running out of food to going without, from Statistics Canada's Canadian Income Survey as Public Health Ontario reports it.

Survey estimates: the tooltips give each one's 95% confidence interval, which for Simcoe Muskoka is wide.

In 2022–23, 37.2% of renter households and 41.0% of lone-parent households in Simcoe Muskoka were food insecure, against 15.1% of owners.

How this is counted

Households that reported any level of food insecurity, from worrying about running out of food to going without, over two-year periods. A survey estimate, with a wide margin for a region this size. This is Statistics Canada (Canadian Income Survey), as reported by Public Health Ontario’s definition.

Source: HealthSTATS Economic Characteristics dashboard, data exports: Nutritious Food Basket and Household Food Insecurity, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, dated October 29, 2025.

How busy is the Barrie Food Bank?

The Barrie Food Bank recorded 82,373 visits in its fiscal year to March 2025, and says visits have "more than tripled in the past 5 years". It counted 4,696 first-time visitors that year. Of the people it served, 38% were children under 18 and 5% seniors; 71% received government assistance and 72% rented. It delivered 1,509 hampers and made 7,923 emergency food support visits, and its school snack program reached 7,144 children in 26 Barrie schools. In a December 2024 release it reported 7,468 visits in November 2024 alone, a single month and a record for the food bank. It publishes no earlier annual visit counts.

Sources: Barrie Food Bank Annual Report 2025 (Impact Report 2024–2025), Barrie Food Bank.

Original document. Published September 2025, for the fiscal year April 2024 to March 2025. The PDF is images only; the figures were transcribed by eye from its pages. Its chart of earlier years gives growth percentages but no counts, so no earlier year is given here. Tim Hortons Holiday Smile Cookie benefits Barrie Food Bank (press release), Barrie Food Bank. Original document. Gives the food bank's visits in November 2024, a single month: "a record breaking 7,468 visits". All retrieved October 11, 2026.

"Food purchases" from each year's audited statement of operations: food the food bank bought, not food donated to it, so it shows how much demand donations did not cover rather than total demand.

Each year's figure matches the next year's statement.

How this is counted

What the food bank spent buying food in each fiscal year to March 31, from its audited statements. It does not include food donated to it, so it measures the gap donations did not fill, not total demand. This is Barrie Food Bank (audited financial statements)’s definition.

Source: Barrie Food Bank audited financial statements, years ended March 31, 2021 to 2026, Barrie Food Bank (audited by Powell Jones LLP).

Original document. "Food purchases" from each year's Statement of Operations: what the food bank spent buying food, not the value of food donated to it. The FY2021 statement also gives FY2020 as its comparative. Retrieved October 11, 2026.

How much farmland is left around Barrie?

Farms counted by the Census of Agriculture in Simcoe County.

The 2011 and 2016 counts are on 2016 boundaries and the 2021 count on 2021 boundaries. In 2021 the county's farms covered 483,350 acres.

Barrie has no farm count of its own in the census. In the townships around it, Springwater had 229 farms in 2021 (271 in 2011), Oro-Medonte 193 (303), Innisfil 170 (134) and Essa 117 (146). On January 1, 2026, the province transferred about 1,673 hectares from Oro-Medonte and Springwater to Barrie; property tax increases for agricultural properties in it are phased in over 20 years.

Sources: Census of Agriculture, farms and farm area (Tables 32-10-0231-01, 32-10-0403-01 and 32-10-0249-01) — Simcoe County and neighbouring townships, Statistics Canada.

Original document. Census of Agriculture counts for Simcoe County (census division 3543) and the consolidated census subdivisions of Springwater, Innisfil, Essa and Oro-Medonte. The 2011 and 2016 counts are on 2016 boundaries, the 2021 count on 2021 boundaries. Barrie has no consolidated subdivision of its own in these tables. Retrieved October 11, 2026. Environmental Registry of Ontario notice 025-1324 — proposed boundary adjustment, Government of Ontario — Environmental Registry, dated November 25, 2025. Original document. States the transfer as "approximately 1,673 hectares" from Oro-Medonte and Springwater, anticipated for "residential and/or industrial commercial uses over the medium to longer period". Retrieved August 9, 2026.

What grows in Barrie?

Barrie is in plant hardiness zone 5b on Natural Resources Canada's maps for both 1961–1990 and 1991–2020, but its hardiness index rose from 55 to 59: from the bottom of zone 5b to the top, one step short of 6a. The frost-free season at Shanty Bay, counted from Environment Canada's daily lows, averaged 152 days over 2006 to 2025, against 147 over 1973 to 1982.

Frost-free days that year Average of the last ten years

Each point is one year's frost-free season: the days between the last night before July 1 with a low of 0 °C or colder and the first such night after it.

The coloured line averages each year with the nine before it. Each tooltip gives that year's frost dates. This site's count from Environment Canada's daily lows at Shanty Bay, on the bay; a year with any low missing from March to June or July to November is left out, because the missing night could have been the frost.

Sources: Plant Hardiness Zone by Municipality: Barrie, Natural Resources Canada — Canadian Forest Service.

Original document. Barrie's zone and hardiness index on the 1961–1990 and 1991–2020 maps. The index combines winter minimum temperature, the frost-free period, summer rainfall, maximum temperature, snow cover, January rainfall and wind; zone 5b covers index values 55 to 59. Historical Climate Data, daily: SHANTY BAY (6117684) and BARRIE WPCC (6110557), Environment and Climate Change Canada. Original document. Daily maximum, minimum and mean temperature, precipitation and snowfall, as downloaded. Every count, sum and mean on the page is this site's arithmetic from them; a year or season missing more than 10% of its days is left blank. Shanty Bay is on the north shore of Kempenfelt Bay about 5 km east of downtown Barrie. All retrieved October 11, 2026.

What does the City do about food?

The City runs six community gardens, at Dunsmore, Golden Meadow, Grzegorz "Greg" Pierzchala, Lampman Lane, Riverwood and Shear parks. By the plots its page lists, they hold about 108 rentable plots (this site's sum; the page describes Golden Meadow's plots in the past tense). A single plot costs $24.63 a season and a double plot $61.59. The City publishes no waitlist count.

In February 2022 council endorsed in principle a year-round "Barrie Bayside Market Area" built around converting the Maple Avenue transit terminal into a market for the Barrie Farmers' Market, with a goal of opening in 2024, and put $100,000 toward planning it and up to $25,000 toward pop-up markets. In December 2024 council cancelled the Permanent Market Development project, 11 votes to none, and gave the terminal at 24 Maple Avenue to a Lakehead University science and technology hub instead, at $6.5 million.

Sources: Community Gardens, City of Barrie.

Original document. The City's six community gardens, their plots and the 2026 rental fees. The page gives no waitlist count. General Committee Minutes, February 7, 2022, City of Barrie — General Committee, dated February 7, 2022. Original document. 22-G-026, Market Precinct Task Force: endorses in principle a Barrie Bayside Market Area centred on converting the Maple Avenue transit terminal to a year-round market. City Council Minutes, February 14, 2022, City of Barrie — City Council, dated February 14, 2022. Original document. 22-G-026 carried as amended: a goal of opening to the public in 2024, $100,000 in 2022 for a contract position or consultant, and up to $25,000 for pop-up markets, both from the Reinvestment Reserve. General Committee Minutes, November 27, 2024, City of Barrie — General Committee, dated November 27, 2024. Original document. 24-G-252: Capital Project 001292 Permanent Market Development cancelled, and the transit terminal at 24 Maple Avenue renovated as a Lakehead University STEM hub, $6.5 million. City Council Minutes, December 4, 2024, City of Barrie — City Council, dated December 4, 2024. Original document. 24-G-252 adopted on a recorded vote, 11 to 0. All retrieved October 11, 2026.

Common questions

How much does healthy food cost in Barrie?

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit priced a basic healthy diet for a family of two adults and two children at $1,282.89 a month in 2025, and $445.92 for one adult. The figure is for Simcoe Muskoka as a whole; the health unit does not price Barrie separately.

How many people in Barrie are food insecure?

Public Health Ontario estimates that 26.3% of households in Simcoe Muskoka were food insecure in 2023–24, up from 14.4% in 2019–20. No estimate is published for Barrie alone. The Barrie Food Bank recorded 82,373 visits in its 2024–25 year.