Cape Breton food bus shifts gears.
Better Bite Community Kitchen program has delivered nearly 5,000 grocery hampers during COVID-19
SYDNEY — A mobile market that brings fresh, affordable food to Cape Breton communities in a retrofitted Handi-Trans bus has shifted gears in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Nova Scotia went into a state of emergency on March 22, Claire Turpin, manager of the New Dawn Enterprises Better Bite Community Kitchen, noticed an immediate increase in demand for their meals on wheel program as they went from serving 300 seniors and other people with mobility or transportation issues each week to 500.
Knowing their Good Food Bus wouldn’t be able to hit the road due to social-distancing requirements, Better Bite quickly rolled out Good Food Packs, a program that with help from the United Way of Cape Breton and community donations has delivered nearly 5,000 food hampers in the past nine weeks.
“We had people say that they didn’t feel alone and they didn’t feel forgotten about,” said Turpin. “Especially at first, on our end we were just scrambling, pulling something together. At first people didn’t know what this was going to look like, how bad it was going to get, and not being able to leave their home, it was a scary time. To have someone go to their house and make sure that they had some snacks and some things they could eat, they felt like they were not alone.”
Emma Jerrott, co-ordinator of Good Food Bus and Good Food Packs, said they initially set out to put together 50-80 bags of groceries but the first week they ended up sending out 131. That jumped to 400 and since then it’s been 700-850 a week.
In total, they have filled 4,743 food hampers — 1,599 individual packs and 3,144 for families — and Jerrott said the need is even greater.
“One week I was asking for five flats of soup and the next week I was asking for 120 flats of soup. It grew quite fast and honestly we’re just touching the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “We talk as a staff a lot about how if we didn’t step up to do this, how many people would be going without, or too afraid to go to the grocery store at this time? We’re hearing a lot that people don’t have family or friends who can help them out, or they might have mobility issues and they can’t get out themselves for groceries, or they’re just too scared right now because of COVID. It’s really eye-opening when you see the numbers.”
Jerrott said one man described the deliveries as “a piece of gold in my life.”
“He can’t get out to the grocery store so this gave him some fruits and vegetables to have in his house and we often put pasta and sauce and things like that in the bags so it gave him a meal for a few days. It was just kind of a relief for him,” she said, adding many people are relieved they don’t have to worry about feeding themselves or their families.
“When the bag shows up at their door they can take a deep breath and know that they have some food for the week and they don’t have to stress about that right now.”
And the Good Food Packs don’t just contain food. Thanks to various individual and business donations, the
Better Bite Community Kitchen has also been able to add some extra items to the hampers, which are picked up at the New Centre for Social Innovation in Sydney each Friday by community groups that deliver them across Cape Breton.
“We’re getting books that were donated that are going in the family packs so that kids have something to read. One of the first weeks we had a bunch of socks that were donated to go into the senior packs. Harold’s Bakery for the month of April donated 100 free loaves of homemade bread a week to put in our hampers,” said Turpin.
“It’s been really nice to just see people come together in this time of crisis. It was really value-added to the packs — we were able to get additional things out to people who needed them. It was a really lovely, overwhelming response from people who wanted to help and the people who are receiving the packages are giving such amazing feedback.”
Turpin said Feed Nova Scotia will take over the program at the end of June and Better Bite Community Kitchen will find ways to get the Good Food Bus back out into communities.
In the meantime, people who need help can call the 211 provincial helpline, and anyone who wants to contribute financially can visit https://newdawnmealsonwheels.ca. A $15 donation will send a nutritious meal to a senior and $35 will deliver a Good Food Pack of groceries to a senior or family in need.