THUNDER BAY – It might not be time to panic yet, but the situation for local food banks is beginning to reach a critical point.
Regional Food Distribution Association community services manager Brendan Carlin said there is beginning to be a state of desperation as the warehouse has become perilously empty over the past number of months.
“It’s kind of a perfect storm,” he said at a media conference on Wednesday.
“The summer is always lower for food banks everywhere but there is also an increased demand. People are using food banks more often and unfortunately when that happens unfortunately we end up getting low and this year seems to be worse than ever.”
The shortfall created by increased demand and slower donations is exacerbated by a dramatic increase in the price of food.
The gaps are felt by the nearly 50 food banks who rely on the RFDA to supplement their own donations.
“We have food banks who are coming in and coming away with only one box or two, which isn’t enough to feed as many people as they have coming to their food banks on a regular basis,” Carlin said.
“If they’re not able to feed the people who are coming that means people are going hungry. It’s quite sad.”
Dale Sparkes, who helps run St. John’s Anglican Church food bank, said he has observed a sharp spike in usage.
“In the past 18 months we’ve seen the volume of clients increase from about 90 people every second week to about 140 to 160 people every second week with a third of those children,” Sparkes said.
“We try to give people a two day supply of food for whatever size their family is. Our clients, a lot of them don’t have full cooking facilities or fridges. All they have are hot plates or limited resources so we have to watch what we give them so they can actually use it and process it.”
The RFDA is holding their annual fall food drive this coming weekend, a three-day collection involving more than 200 volunteers at 13 local grocery stores.
The hope is to raise enough food to ease the pressure on the RFDA to increase the trickle down to individual food banks.
“There are many reasons why people end up in a food bank to get food. We shouldn’t judge them,” Sparkes said. “Most of us are probably only a paycheque away from being in that lineup and I think we should be generous when we have the opportunity to be generous.”
