Little free pantry helps families over holidays
Neighbours help each other out during particularly difficult season
When the founder of a free community pantry in Abbeydale announced she was moving out of Calgary, several residents offered to take on the responsibility to care for their neighbours.
The Little Free Library and Pantry in the northeast community started as a “take what you need, leave what you can” food bank for those who needed a helping hand. Founder Margot Baker constructed a wooden pantry and library boxes on her front lawn that served her community for more than a year before she passed the reins to Jennifer Charlebois.
Though the boxes haven’t gone up in her yard yet, Charlebois has been running the pantry out of her home by arranging for deliveries of hampers to neighbourhood families experiencing food scarcity.
Charlebois said before Christmas that she had about 20 hampers ready for delivery, “and I’m hoping to make more as people in the community continue to give,” she said. “There are people in my community who are really watching out for each other.”
People on Facebook nominated neighbours to receive the hampers, which were being delivered over the holidays, and dedicated their time to build the hampers with Charlebois.
“I come from a family of heavy volunteers, so it’s something that’s always been instilled in me. If you can’t give up your money then you give up your time,” said Charlebois, who’s picking up and sorting donations on top of making deliveries.
All of the donations are from people within the community who want to help Charlebois feed the neighbourhood. When she’s running low, a request for certain foods goes out on the “Abbeydale Little Free Library & Pantry” Facebook page, and people are quick to show up at her door with full grocery bags.
“I know how difficult it is this time of the year. There’s a lot of job loss in the neighbourhood, a lot of people can use this help over the Christmas season and I have these donations that will make someone’s Christmas a little better, a little easier and a little less stressful,” said Charlebois.
She’s seen a 75 per cent increase in requests for hampers this season. As a full-time operator of a day home, she’s seen a significant amount of job loss in her neighbourhood and hopes the hampers can give some of these families a boost.
The Calgary Food Bank sees an increase in food scarcity each fall and winter, which leads to a greater need for donations around the holidays. During an average month outside of the Christmas season, such as March, the Food Bank hands out 250 hampers of food per day, while 650 are needed on any given day in December.
“We’re lucky that Calgarians know that whether they’re donating a dollar or a can of tuna they’re going to make an impact,” said Shawna Ogston, communications manager with the food bank.
As seasonal employment ends, heat and rent expenses jump higher, and people who were laid off throughout the year run low on funds.
The food bank sees more firsttime users and returnees during the holidays. About 43 per cent of the food bank’s clients in December were new to the system and required one to three hampers.
“We couldn’t sustain this high level of demand that we’ve seen in the past three years without the community,” said Ogston.