73% of Albertans struggle to buy food, clothing: Salvation Army report

Albertans, more than anywhere else in Canada, say they struggle to buy necessities like food and clothing.

That’s according to the recent fall poverty report by the Salvation Army.

The organization’s “Annual Canadian Poverty & Socioeconomic Analysis” shows 73 per cent of Albertans are struggling to manage their limited resources – up four per cent from September 2024. That’s well above the Canadian average of 64 per cent, and higher than any other region group in the country.

Eighty-six per cent of Alberta residents named the cost of living and inflation as their top worry – higher than any other region – and financial optimism has dropped more sharply than in any other province.

The Salvation Army says it’s seeing an increase in clients.

“On a regular basis, we serve 125 families per week and 4,000 people per month, and we’ve seen that double in the last year,” Bernadette Desantis, the divisional secretary for public relations for the Prairies and northern territories, said of the the Castledowns Salvation Army location in Edmonton.

That’s despite an eight per cent drop year-over-year in Albertans saying they are experiencing “food-related challenges” – from 57 per cent to 49 per cent. It remains two points above the Canadian average.

Every Tuesday, the Castledowns Salvation Army gives out food hampers. In line this week was Adeline Sernes, who relies on the church’s charity to support her and four other family members.

“Families are having to make difficult choices these days,” said Sernes, who turned to the Salvation Army for help about a year ago. “They’re deciding between paying their rent and putting food on their table.”

Despite Sernes having a two-income household, she says it doesn’t completely cover groceries for the family of five.

“Everything has gone up,” she said. “You know, the meat has gone up. You can’t get anything decent other than hamburgers, like $25.”

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Sernes has also been struggling to find work.

“It is hard to find a job. I’ve applied on Indeed for over a hundred and some places, and not one reply, and now you can’t take a paper resume into a lot of these places.”

The Castledowns Salvation Army is one of the three busiest food pantries in Edmonton, with officials there saying they are seeing more demand and less supply.

–With files from Leo Cruzat

The Salvation Army surveyed 1,521 Canadians who are members of the online Angus Reid Forum from Sept. 12-16, 2025. A margin of error cannot be calculated on a non-probability sample. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.