‘Nobody should go hungry’: new community cupboard gives 24/7 access to food and supplies
The Sackville Food Bank is expanding access with a new Community Cupboard, which offers food and supplies to anyone in need, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Longtime food bank volunteers and sisters Tammy Fahey and Jacqueline Fahey are the team spearheading the project, which is currently in its pilot form, with a small re-purposed cupboard set up outside the Sackville Commons Co-op on Lorne Street.
Hear Tammy Fahey and Jacqueline Fahey on Tantramar Report:
“It’s just a cupboard where people can come and they can take some food,” says Jacqueline Fahey, “instead of having to wait maybe until Wednesday when the food bank is open. It just makes it a lot easier.”
In addition to the new Community Cupboard, the food bank is also adding an evening pick up time to its schedule, to make access easier for people with work or school commitments during the day. According to data from Food Banks Canada, more than half of food insecure households rely on employment income, meaning scheduling matters. “A lot of people are working,” says Fahey, they can’t get out [during the day.]” Starting next week on January 17, the Sackville Food Bank will be open Tuesday evenings from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.
In the meantime, the Community Cupboard is stocked with weather-proof dry goods like cereal, soup and pasta mixes, and granola bars.… Continue
Community Cupboard coming to Sackville, and the challenges of getting food to kids in the summer
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.… Continue