A VicHealth survey of 2000 Victorians showed single-parent families and those on low incomes have been hardest hit.

Almost half of families earning less than $40,000 a year and four in 10 single-parent families resorted to cheap, unhealthy food due to a shortage of money.

The data shows one in four single-parent families and one in 10 families on low incomes ran out of food and couldn't afford to buy more.

"All families want their kids to grow up healthy and strong, but this new research shows that due to budget pressures many are having to rely on cheap, unhealthy food to feed their kids, and some are even going without food," VicHealth chief executive Dr Sandro Demaio said.

"We must make delicious, fresh healthy food more affordable and available for Victorian families doing it tough.

"We know unhealthy food and drinks like soft drinks, chips and sugary cereals are more likely to be discounted than healthy food like fruit and vegetables.

"We also know unhealthy food companies deliberately target their promotions and advertising to families from poorer communities, putting their profits ahead of our health."

Mr Demaio said the gap between rich and poor was continuing to widen.

"Some experts are concerned this generation will be the first in history to live shorter lives than their parents, burdened by type two diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other chronic diet-related health problems," he said.

"This year there's been a hefty increase in the cost of healthy food, like fruit, vegetables, seafood and meats, at a time when families are losing their jobs or having their hours dramatically cut back.

"We must do all we can to support families to ensure they can access and afford to feed their kids healthy food."

Not for profit organisations in Ballarat have boosted their food relief efforts throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

A study of people accessing food relief in Ballarat in 2018 showed they would buy fruit, vegetables and meat if they had an extra $20.

The Ballarat Foundation partnered with Ballarat Community Health and Salvation Army to deliver packages of staple foods to schools and universities each fortnight in response to the economic fallout from the pandemic.

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Salvation Army Ballarat is offering takeaway meals and emergency food relief.

Uniting Ballarat provides vouchers to people in need to purchase fresh food.

Many other organisations in the Ballarat Food Access Network also play a role in food relief efforts.

Ballarat Foundation chief executive Andrew Eales said the JobSeeker payment had reduced the economic impact, but a large number of people in the Ballarat community were in increasing need of support.

"We determined there was a gap in that area where some of the schools were seeing requests from parents they maybe haven't seen before in need of assistance," he said.

"We have seen a significant increase in requests for that service in the last month. It aligned almost completely with the change in government restrictions.

"We had our largest number of parcels last week that we delivered, almost 150. We will be expanding the service to some smaller communities outside of Ballarat because we are getting requests from those communities for support as well.

"I think one of the real key issues here is the lack of financial literacy in pockets of our community."

Mr Eales thanked major community donors Ballarat Italian Association, Apex Ballarat and the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat that have funded the new food relief program.

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