2025 Nutritious Food Basket Updates
The Provincial Government recently released the cost of a 2025 Newfoundland and Labrador Nutritious Food Basket.
The latest report is the fifth release of data using the updated food basket developed for 2021. This allows us to make year-to-year comparisons, which you can view as a trend on our Right to Food Dashboard.
The Nutritious Food Basket
The Nutritious Food Basket is a standardized tool used to calculate the weekly cost of meeting the nutrient requirements for a family of four (specifically, an adult man and woman, a teenage boy, and a young girl). The food basket contains 61 foods from the 2019 Canada Food Guide based on the National Nutritious Food Basket.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Statistics Agency collects data about the costs of these foods around the province every October and November.
Nutritious Food Costs in 2025
In October 2025, it cost an average of $336 for a family of four in N.L. to buy enough nutritious food for a week. That's $1,344 per month.
That said, the cost of food varies around the province. Here are the Nutritious Food Basket costs by region:
The highest cost in the province was on the North Coast of Labrador. The Nutritious Food Basket cost $501 per week ($2,004 per month).
South Coast of Labrador cost $452 per week ($1,808 per month).
Northern Peninsula cost $407 per week ($1,628 per month). That was the highest Nutritious Food Basket cost on the Island.
Western Newfoundland cost $368 per week ($1,472 per month).
Central/Western Labrador cost $365 per week ($1,460 per month).
Central Newfoundland was $341 per week ($1,364 per month).
The lowest cost in the province was in Eastern Newfoundland, at $321 per week ($1,284 per month)
Putting The Nutritious Food Basket In Context
It’s helpful to look at these costs as part of a household budget, especially for families with low incomes. Below, we look at the Nutritious Food Basket alongside social assistance and minimum wage rates.
Provincial Income Support
Based on the 2025 Provincial Income Support Benefit rates, a family of four (the same size used to calculate the Food Basket costs) would receive up to $1,720 or $1,870 for families living in Coastal Labrador.
To afford a Nutritious Food Basket, a family of four:
on Labrador’s North Coast would spend 107% of their income support benefit (with cost of living allowance).
on Labrador’s South Coast would spend 97% of their income support benefit (with cost of living allowance).
on the Northern Peninsula would spend 95% of their income support benefit.
in Western Newfoundland would spend 86% of their income support benefit.
in Labrador West/Central would spend 85% of their income support benefit.
in Central Newfoundland would spend 79% of their income support benefit.
in Eastern Newfoundland would spend 75% of their income support benefit
Total Welfare Income
The Provincial Income Support Benefit is only one part of the income picture for families that rely on it. There are also tax credits, child benefits, and supplemental payments.
According to Maytree’s 2025 Welfare in Canada Report, a family of four in St. John’s would receive an annual income of $37,998. They would need to spend 46% of their entire income to afford the Nutritious Food Basket. This is the best-case scenario, with every benefit maxed out at 2025 levels.
Employment Income
The majority of food-insecure households rely on income from work — either with one or both adults working. In 2025, the minimum wage was $16.00 per hour. That’s between $12.30 and $8.40 lower than the living wage in 2025.
Both adults working full-time (40 hours a week) at minimum wage would spend roughly 30% of their take-home income on the Nutritious Food Basket. This doesn’t account for income from government benefits (e.g., child benefit or GST payments), which would raise incomes.
How It Compares to 2024
The average cost of a Nutritious Food Basket in Newfoundland and Labrador did not change compared to 2024. We also saw fairly small changes in regional prices. These changes ranged from $4 cheaper in Central/Western Labrador to $15 more expensive in South Coast Labrador. Most regions had less than a $5 change in cost.
While food costs aren’t increasing by much, they’ve levelled off at a price that’s out of reach for many people. When prices skyrocketed a few years ago, incomes did not keep up. Now, many people are still making difficult decisions about what to buy and leaving the grocery store feeling defeated. Food banks also continue to see record use.
The biggest change is the increase in provincial income support rates. This is the first year since 2021 that the majority of regions would spend less than 100% of their income support benefit on a Nutritious Food Basket. However, income support rates still aren’t tied to inflation. Meaning it’s only a matter of time until we hit 100% again as food prices increase. The outlier is Labrador’s North Coast. Food prices there have exceeded Provincial Benefit Rates since data collection began in 2021.
Incomes still aren’t keeping up. The minimum wage is still far from a living wage. In 2025, social assistance and total welfare incomes were still well below a reasonable standard of living. Meanwhile, fixed costs like rent and electricity continue to increase, leaving less money available for food.
What We Expect for 2026 and Beyond
Data collection for the 2026 Nutritious Food Basket costs is just around the corner, so what can we expect for our next report?
The main change we expect is the introduction of the Grocery and Essentials Benefit. Low- and middle-income households will receive a bump to their GST rebate (now GEB).
A big question mark remains around supply chain impacts. These include global conflicts (notably the war in Iran), the climate crisis, and changing trade relations with the U.S. Things change rapidly, so we’ll see the impact on food prices in the next report.
Income support benefits are not supposed to increase and are not tied to inflation. So, if food prices increase, we can expect that nutritious food will become less affordable for people receiving social assistance.
There’s also a slew of government strategies recently announced or in development that could make food more affordable or reduce poverty. The National Food Security Strategy explicitly aims to make food more affordable. Provincially, the Poverty Prevention and Reduction Strategy and Agriculture Strategy are in development. You can share insights for the Poverty Prevention and Reduction Strategy online until August 31st.
These measures will help, to some extent, but they’re far from enough. Incomes have not kept up with inflation and people continue to slip deeper into poverty. Everyone is struggling to afford the food they want and need, and low-income households feel it most.
Conclusions
While there are some small glimmers of hope, we can draw similar conclusions to those for the 2023 and 2024 data:
We have legislated poverty by having income floors well below what would meet people’s basic needs (like other provinces, unfortunately).
This data clearly shows how our social supports and wages still have a lot of catching up to do with food prices. That gap is disproportionately large the more rural and northern you get in the province.
The cost of a Nutritious Food Basket helps us wrap our heads around what liveable income floors might look like. This data is used in regional living wage calculations and can help guide our advocacy for income-based solutions.