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.<\/p>\n
CHMA caught up with Sackville Food Bank president Heather Patterson and vice-president Tammy Faye to find out more about the new service.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood insecurity is at the highest level it\u2019s ever been,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Faye says the Sharing Cupboard has been open for about a month, and is already seeing considerable use. \u201cWe\u2019re emptied out all the time,\u201d says Faye. The Cupboard is replenished by the Food Bank weekly, and also relies on donations to keep stocked.<\/p>\n
A wide range of people use the cupboard, including some who already make use of the Food Bank. \u201cI had somebody who called me today who got his order from the Food Bank last week,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for emergency use,\u201d says Faye. \u201cIf you\u2019re short from payday to payday, or if anything happens, you just come in and take what you need. If you have something you don\u2019t use yourself, you can leave it for somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being open 24\/7 is key to access, says Faye, because work schedules won\u2019t have to coincide with open times. Even someone getting off a shift at midnight can stop in to grab some milk, cereal, tampons or toilet paper. The cupboard carries a number of non-food supplies that often cut into grocery budgets, says Faye.<\/p>\n
There are two other similar sharing cupboards in the region. Port Elgin\u2019s Nursing Homes Without Walls just opened the Community of Strait Shores Sharing is Caring Pantry located in the Port Elgin Community Hall. And Dorchester\u2019s Moving Forward Co-op opening a community fridge last summer, featuring fresh and frozen food, some of which comes from their own aquaponics lab. Director Wendy Keats estimates about 80 people in the community source two to four meals per week from the community fridge.<\/p>\n
The number of people using the Sackville Community Sharing Cupboard is not tracked, but since April 1 this year, Patterson says the Food Bank has had 27 new families sign up for help. The previous year saw 76 new households join, on top of the 200 households already signed up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose were all brand new families to our program,\u201d says Patterson. \u201cWe\u2019ve been told that we\u2019re not considered a small food bank anymore, because we have so many clients, and so much usage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same thing that is driving increased food bank usage is also driving increased costs to run the food bank: food price inflation. \u201cLast year, we spent $50,000, more than we did the previous year on groceries,\u201d says Patterson. \u201cWe\u2019re on course to spend at least that much again\u2026 And then we have the cupboard on top of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s scary when you look at our budget and where we\u2019re going with this,\u201d says Patterson.<\/p>\n
The Food Bank relies on regular deliveries from Food Depot Alimentaire, some funding from the national food banks organization, and a small amount of funding from the province, says Patterson. It also relies heavily on local donors and fundraising.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we\u2019re doing well, but it can\u2019t go on forever,\u201d says Patterson. \u201cBecause we\u2019re going to be spending all of our savings on food, just on food, if we don\u2019t get some more help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":163977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223],"tags":[2019,27685,6212],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164213,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163957\/revisions\/164213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163957"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=163957"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=163957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}