As Canada’s federal government opens the tap for military spending, one in four Canadians are going hungry. Soaring living costs are making groceries unaffordable. With few signs that help is on the way, struggling Canadians are being asked to survive on meager government support, while war profiteers are set to get rich on the back of a military-spending boom.

In a recent interview, Jan Reynolds, a resident in Guelph, Ontario, who lives on federal Old Age Security (OAS) payments, explained to me that she currently has just $30 per week to spend on groceries. This means she cannot afford many basic items, such as bread and eggs.

“I get tired, because I know I’m not, at times, getting enough nutrients,” said Reynolds, who is currently eating just two meals per day amid soaring grocery prices and ever-rising housing costs. She is among the 23 percent of Canadians who say they aren’t eating properly because they don’t have enough money to buy food.