‘It’s people from all over’
Ashley Martin looks at Regina’s food bank in the midst of a very busy season.
’Tis the season of giving, and the Regina Food Bank is booming.
December brings more volunteers and more donations, says CEO John Bailey. It also brings more clients, with lineups snaking out the door into the cold.
“Normally for us, we will see between 250 and 300 clients a day. There’s some seasonal variation on that; it gets a little quieter in summer,” said Bailey.
By early December, already there were almost no volunteer openings left for the month, but “it’ll be a totally different story in January and it was a different story in November,” said Bailey.
If you’re fortunate enough to not have relied on the food bank, or have never volunteered there, here’s an insider’s view of how it works.
FIRST, LOGISTICS
On a first visit, a prospective client is set up with an intake worker.
There’s a “non-invasive check” to determine the need of that person, basically asking about household income. It varies from person to person, but generally if a family has less than $500 to cover everything that isn’t rent or utility bills, they’re likely an eligible food bank client.
They’re then assigned a number that lets them be anonymous on subsequent visits — the only information that’s shared with staff and volunteers is how many grocery hampers the client can pick up.
The food bank has 21 staff and between two and 10 volunteers working on a given day.
They sort and process food behind the scenes, allotting it into crates that are kept in cold storage. The crates come out on a conveyor belt into the pickup area, where clients line up. Clients remove the food from the crates, pack it up and take it away.
Two weeks’ time is required between visits; many customers are on a regular two-week cycle, while some use the food bank a handful of times, or just once or twice during a “rough patch.”
Located on North Winnipeg Street, the food bank’s building is out of the way for many clients. Regina Transit has a bus stop outside the building.
Bailey said the organization is working on a delivery service, and also has 120 agency partners that can help get food to clients.
The Regina Food Bank was founded in 1982.
WHO ARE THE FOOD BANK’S CUSTOMERS?
Bailey says Regina’s food bank customers pretty well represent the demographics of the city.
That said, a disproportionate number of users are children, at 41 per cent.
It definitely has customers who are marginalized in many ways. But literally all kinds of people use the service.
In Regina, “it’s people from all over,” said Bailey — “north, south, east, west. We’re touching basically every subdivision; every neighbourhood association, we’re serving.”
People may hold stereotypes about who uses or needs the food bank. Bailey points out there are customers you might not expect.
“The ones that I always want to make sure to highlight is a nice middle class life and a layoff. Or an unexpected bill or whatever,” said Bailey. “The idea that people have three months of salary stocked way and savings for the rainy day isn’t a reality now.”
WHERE DOES THE FOOD COME FROM?
Mostly, from the grocery store. Retail partners provide the Regina Food Bank with about 80 per cent of the food it gives to clients.
“I’ve heard sort of the war stories of the bad old days,” said Bailey, when clients received only a few canned goods. “It hasn’t been like that for years around here.”
For companies including Loblaws, Walmart, Co- Op, Sobeys and IGA, “it costs them money to throw it away; it costs them nothing to call us up and have us pick it up.”
Food may be just enough past grocery shelf life, like “a shipment of fruit or vegetables or whatever that are going to go (past ripe) in a couple days,” for example.
Through food drives and dropoff bins at stores, individuals also donate non-perishable food items. People can also purchase emergency food hampers at grocery stores.
Bailey said during food drives, there’s an eight- to 10-per-cent waste; people giving expired goods.
“I want to believe that it’s just best of intentions,” said Bailey, but the oldest item this year dated back to 2012.
WHEN SOMEONE GETS A HAMPER, WHAT’S IN IT?
There can be “variability,” but clients are guaranteed a well-rounded grocery hamper.
With hundreds of crates packed each day, the contents of each might not be the exact same, but the nutritional value will be consistent.
“Today it’ll be one protein, three vegetables, two lettuce, one dairy ... that’ll be sort of the rough list,” said Bailey.
One might have chicken and the next might have beef, but
“the caloric nutritional value will be standardized.”
The food bank can’t guarantee meeting dietary restrictions, but it does ensure “the highest quality product.”
In December, in addition to regular food hampers, there are also Christmas hampers handed out Dec. 17 to 20.
Almost 2,500 families each year register for these special hampers, which provide holiday dinner staples including a ham or turkey, potatoes, apple pie — plus breakfast items, treats and a toy for each child in the family, in partnership with the Salvation Army.
These hampers are purchased at a wholesale price. All told,
“It’ll be like 100 grand worth of product going out,” said Bailey.
WHO PAYS FOR THE FOOD BANK’S SERVICES?
The food bank receives no core funding from any level of government. It relies on donations from businesses and individuals.
Bailey says cash donations are more useful than food, because the organization gets wholesale prices from its partners.
“For $1 donated, we can round out five meals” given the scale of food that’s already donated from retailers.
The goal is to be a “hand up, not a handout. It’s to help support people in fighting food insecurity.”
“Support” is a key word: Even though eligible customers can come every two weeks, they won’t receive two weeks’ worth of food. Hampers include about a week’s worth of food.
Bailey says he has heard comments like, “I don’t want my tax dollars supporting this.”
“There’s something about a food bank that triggers weird emotional reactions that kind of miss the point of what we’re trying to do,” said Bailey.
“People are here because they need it, and people are here because sometimes they don’t have other options.
“We’re not, by design, supposed to be the only source of food.”
He encourages empathy toward food bank clients.
“For people to end up here, they have fallen through our system of supports that let them get there. And then for them to walk through that door is incredible, because it’s about people being empowered to take control of fighting against our own food insecurity, in light of a system that has failed them, essentially,” he said.
“So, to me, that should be honoured and respected and even celebrated.”