Ezekiel 5:16
When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread: When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
The first twenty chapters of Ezekiel were spoken among the captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar while Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem. They belong to a book whose visions reveal God's overruling providence over the nations.
Famine here is a destructive judgment sent by God, increased until it brings destruction and removes the supply of bread. This judgment follows faithlessness, so that when the people reject God their crops fail and bread is measured out by weight, as part of the calamities brought on by their own choices. The breaking of the staff of bread means the removal of the support that bread provides for life.
Because bread is the support of life and the cheapest food, it should be made the foundation of economical eating by providing a large variety of breads and by preparing more expensive foods in the form of toasts.