Two out of every five children in P.E.I.

were living with some level of food insecurity in 2022 — the highest rate in the country and a significant increase from the previous year, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. Those figures show 41 per cent of Island children were living in households struggling to be able to afford the food they needed that year, up from 35.1 per cent in 2021.

Overall, 28.6 per cent of Islanders of all ages had trouble acquiring healthy food in an affordable manner in 2022, up from 23.6 per cent the year before.

"It's completely unacceptable," said Jennifer Taylor, a professor in foods and nutrition at the University of Prince Edward Island. "It means that those children are living in houses where either they or their parents are cutting the size of their meals [or] skipping meals." Youth meal programs in P.

E.I. feeling stretched by soaring demand, rising food costs New grants aimed at fighting loneliness and hunger among P.

E.I. seniors The statistics on moderate to severe food insecurity show more Islanders are going an entire day without eating, Taylor said — especially parents, who choose to provide what food they do have to their children.

"That may seem really shocking, you know, in a wealthy country like Canada, [or a] beautiful province like Prince Edward Island, but it is a very simple case of households not having enough money to buy food." Across Canada, the overall rate of food insecurity also climbed in 2022, as high i.