Sackville Food Bank expands services with 24/7 Community Sharing Cupboard
Sackville has a new emergency support to help people survive the inflationary economy. The Community Sharing Cupboard opened last month behind the Ice Cream Coop on Lorne Street, and the Sackville Food Bank volunteers that run it are ready for an official launch event this Wednesday at 4pm on site.
CHMA caught up with Sackville Food Bank president Heather Patterson and vice-president Tammy Faye to find out more about the new service:
“Food insecurity is at the highest level it’s ever been,” says Patterson. And so the Food Bank has taken inspiration from similar programs across the region, and added another way that people can get help, on short notice, and without paperwork. The Sackville Community Sharing Cupboard is a free, 24/7, self-serve food and supply resource.
Faye says the Sharing Cupboard has been open for about a month, and is already seeing considerable use. “We’re emptied out all the time,” says Faye. The Cupboard is replenished by the Food Bank weekly, and also relies on donations to keep stocked.
A wide range of people use the cupboard, including some who already make use of the Food Bank. “I had somebody who called me today who got his order from the Food Bank last week,” says Patterson. The Food Bank is limited to supplying people every two weeks, but Patterson says the man she spoke to was able to use the Sharing Cupboard to supplement his groceries in the interim.… Continue
‘It’s shameful’: NB has second highest rate of food insecurity in Canada
New Brunswick has the second highest rate of food insecurity in the country, behind only Alberta, according to a recent report by PROOF, a food insecurity research program based at the University of Toronto.
PROOF found that nearly one out of every six households in the country had problems or concerns meeting their food needs in 2021. And in New Brunswick, that number was even higher, with 19% (about 64,000 households) reporting food insecurity.
“I think it’s shameful,” says Heather Patterson, director of the Sackville Food Bank. “It’s something that all people who work with food banks know, and it’s been going on like this for a very long time.”
Patterson says food banks are not the answer. “Successive governments have been aware of these problems and have tried to fix things with giving money to food banks,” says Patterson. “That’s not the solution. The Food Bank is a great stopgap measure, but it shouldn’t be the solution to poverty or food insecurity.”
The PROOF report is based on Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey conducted in 2021, and also breaks down the severity of food insecurity that people are experiencing.
In New Brunswick, nearly 6%—or 20,000 households—are severely food insecure, meaning they miss meals, reduce their food intake and sometimes go without food.… Continue