With 66 new households signing up for biweekly food pick-ups at the Sackville Food Bank, the need for the service is growing. Food bank director Heather Patterson says families are feeling the pinch, with food prices having risen by nearly 10% in the past year, according to Statistics Canada.
CHMA stopped by the Sackville Food Bank to talk with Patterson about the challenge of continuing to get food to kids who need it during the summer months, and a new project on the horizon, a Community Cupboard that could open in the fall in Sackville.
As you walk into the Sackville Food Bank these days, there are stacks of boxes filled with non-perishable food for kids. The boxes are part of a summer program partly supplied by Food Banks Canada, meant to help kids who normally rely on school-based food programs to supplement their diet.
Patterson and other food bank volunteers will add to the bags before distributing them to kids in the area. But that distribution is challenging in the summer. Without schools to get the food to kids who need it, the Sackville Food Bank is relying on its current clients and others to reach out, as well as offering bags through day camps that don’t already provide meal service.
The difficulty in distribution is directly related to the reason for the program, says Patterson. In the summertime, “some kids don’t have access to healthy food. They don’t have access to their breakfast programs, and they don’t have access to their lunch programs. So for some kids summer is really hard.”
During the school year, the Sackville Food Bank runs the Food for Thought program, which provides bagged lunches and snacks for the three Sackville schools. Patterson says when she met Tantramar Regional High School teacher Melanie Ball, who runs a pantry program at the high school, she decided to put her volunteer power behind supporting the efforts to feed school kids, and Food For Thought was born.
“[Ball] told me that there are kids sleeping on people’s couches, and maybe in apartments by themselves,” says Patterson. “Kids who haven’t graduated from high school.”
With Ball working full-time and running the high school’s pantry program, Patterson decided an offer of help from the food bank, with its considerable volunteer power, was in order. She applied for a grant and received $22,000 to start Food For Thought. “Now we’ve used a lot of that,” says Patterson though the program still receives donations from time to time. The Sackville Food Bank contributes supplies and volunteers for the program, and recently the provincial Food Depots Alimentaire has started delivering enough to supply Food for Thought.
Inflation causing increase in use of Food Bank
Regular operations at the Sackville Food Bank are busier than ever, says Patterson, with volunteers packing boxes and bags for households representing 230 individuals. Since September of 2021, 66 new households have signed on to the food program.
When the pandemic began, the food bank started a low contact pick up system, as well as deliveries for people with transportation challenges. Those are now permanent features of the food bank operation. Every Tuesday morning about 10 volunteers sort and pack boxes and bags, and then on Wednesday morning, clients either get a delivery or come for a pick up.
In addition to the packed boxes, the Food Bank arranges items market-style to give people some choice. Not everyone like the same type of cracker, says Patterson, so it helps the right food get to the right people. The food bank has also expanded what if offer clients to include toiletries and other household necessities. There’s even kids books available for families.
Getting on the pick up list is as easy as showing up, says Patterson. There is a form to fill out that asks about income level, but there is no cut off for being able to participate. It’s up to clients to determine their own needs.
“We’re not saying no, you make too much money, because we know how hard it is for families right now,” says Patterson. “We get calls all the time from people saying, I want to sign up. I say well, just show up on Wednesday between 9 and 11, and we’ll give you some food.”
Self-serve Community Cupboard project on the horizon
Come fall, Sackville may be home to a new Community Cupboard, a sort of self-serve food bank meant to supplement people with supplies in smaller amounts or on short notice, without waiting for a Wednesday morning pick up or delivery.
Patterson is in the process of finding funding and recruiting skilled volunteers to help build the project, and if all goes well, she says it could be operational by the fall.
“Our clients are welcome to use it too, but mostly it would be for people who are not our clients,” says Patterson. “They don’t need the full services of a food bank, but by the end of the week, or the before the next paycheck comes in, they may find themselves short of something.”
“There seems to be a bit of a movement afoot in the Maritimes,” says Patterson, with community cupboards popping up all over. “I’ve spoken to people in Dartmouth, Dorchester, Riverview, all who have done this in the last few years.”
Patterson says that community cupboards elsewhere are being well used, and are not falling prey to the problem you might think they would: vandalism.
“The first thing I hear from everybody to whom I mention this is, what about vandalism? Well, Amherst has had a food cupboard for years and years, and only once have they had any vandalism. So I don’t think vandalism is a problem. Fingers crossed, it won’t happen here, either.”
Patterson says she’s looking into possible locations for the community cupboard, including at the Sackville Commons on Lorne Street or at the Tantramar Civic Centre on Main. She says she needs skilled volunteers to help build the structure for the cupboard, which could eventually include a fridge as well.
‘It just breaks your heart’
Patterson is a dedicated volunteer at the Food Bank, and even calls it her “happy place”, but ultimately, she’d like to see the need for food banks disappear, even as costs are growing quickly and increasing that need.
“A family of four will see an increase of almost $1,000 a year in food,” says Patterson. “Many of our clients are working poor, so they’ve got part time jobs, or they’ve got seasonal jobs, and they don’t have room to add $1,000 to their grocery bill.”
Patterson says she’s heard stories locally about parents opting to miss a meal in order to have enough food for their children. “It just breaks your heart,” says Patterson. “In a country like Canada, we shouldn’t need to have those situations. We should have people with a basic income level that they can count on.”
Patterson takes the opportunity to put in a plug for a guaranteed annual income or basic income system. “It just makes so much sense in so many ways,” she says, with evidence pointing to “better health outcomes, better legal outcomes, less conflict with law, less drug abuse, less family violence. Everything’s better with a basic income, not just food.”