One in three households have experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months, according to the latest Foodbank Hunger Report released today.
This means 3.6 million households are going hungry, 100,000 more than in 2025.
“We call ourselves the Lucky Country, but for one in three households, Australia is now the Hungry Country,” said Foodbank Australia CEO, Kylea Tink.
“If one person from every food insecure household stood in a queue one metre apart, that line would stretch from Sydney to Perth. In a country like Australia, we should not accept this as our new normal.”
What is most concerning about this year’s report is the profile it paints for who is actually grappling with food insecurity, and it is parents who are carrying the heaviest load. Forty-five per cent of households with children are facing food insecurity this year. Single parents are even more impacted, increasingly having to choose between keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.
Up to 60 per cent of single-parent households faced food insecurity in the past year, according to the report.
“We’re hearing of parents going without just to make sure their children can eat. This is unacceptable, and we must do something about it,” Tink said.
The research also shows 37 per cent of middle-income households, earning between $33,800 and $90,999 per year, are food insecure with 23 per cent of this cohort severely food insecure.
Foodbank Australia has welcomed $700,000 from the Federal Government in surge funding earlier this month.
“Importantly, this funding will not add to inflation as it will help Foodbank Australia redirect surplus food that has already been produced to households struggling to put food on the table,” said Tink.
While many of the numbers were bleak, the Foodbank Hunger Report 2026 also found positive results that supported the value of School Breakfast Programs across the country, particularly for families doing it tough. The report shows that participation among food insecure households with school-aged children in Foodbank’s school breakfast programs has risen from 36 to 45 per cent in the last 12 months.
Kylea Tink called for a national program to provide healthy school breakfasts.
“We need all governments to now work together to ensure no child starts a school day hungry,” she said.
“In a nation as prosperous as Australia, one in three households going hungry simply doesn’t pass the pub test. The findings in this report demand more than concern from corporate Australia.
“One dollar can put two meals on the table. Food relief organisations cannot solve this alone, we need government, business, philanthropists and communities to step up to the plate. Together, we must invest in immediate relief while addressing the structural causes of food insecurity.”
Foodbank is Australia’s largest food relief organisation, providing food and groceries to 2,966 charity partners and 3,649 school breakfast programs across the country.