Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. David McKeown and community agencies want to see a $100 food credit in next month's provincial budget to help those who can't make ends meet and are calling on the provincial government to implement the supplement in the upcoming budget.

McKeown said the poor people are in a tricky situation of having to choose between eating properly and paying rent. "People living on low incomes generally die younger, have more illness and disease, and more hospitalization," he said.  City groups are calling the proposal Put Food On The Budget.

Over the last nine years the basic cost of healthy eating has risen by 27% which usually means that people are in the negative just trying to pay rent and food. Social assistance for a single person is $580 a month and after the average rent for a bachelor apartment of $742 is deducted from it the balance is not sufficient to even feed a person.

This results in many people having no option but to buy the cheaper and unhealthy food options. The increase has been seen by The Stop community food centre and Executive director of The Stop, Nick Saul, said they've seen a 20 % increase in people using their food bank this year.

Connie Harrison who underwent breast cancer surgery and was subsequently forced to go on disability said,   "You want to have a healthy diet ... because that wards off illness. I think that I see people out there that are healthier because they're eating really good foods, and I do my best. I eat a lot of lentils, a lot of chickpeas. But I also find my money, it's hard to stretch ... All the good stuff is expensive."

The Heart and Stroke Foundation in a survey released earlier this month criticized the large gaps in food prices between cities, and pointed out the wide variance in the cost of healthy dishes from one town to the next.

Janet Gasparini, chair of the Social Planning Network of Ontario, said the problem of access to food isn't unique to Toronto. "In Ontario, we want people to be able to eat. It's embarrassing."