Swift Current food bank dealing with growing need
The Salvation Army food bank in Swift Current has experienced a growing need for food support since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which required several adjustments to its operations.
The extent of the increase is evident from data about food bank appointments provided by Swift Current Salvation Army corps officer Lieut. Renee Mailman and Sue Mckeown, the community and family services worker.
“It has been a significant increase,” Mailman said. “We were doing 18 appointments a week prior to COVID and now we’re doing 72 a week.”
Those pre-pandemic food bank appointments were done during three days of the week, but now appointments are done four days a week due to the increase. The jump from 18 to 72 appointments a week amounts to an increase of 300 per cent.
They referred to several factors that have been contributing to this increase. People have been living paycheque to paycheque. The higher cost of living due to inflation and rising food prices make it more challenging to cope.
“A big part of it has to do with COVID, but also I think people are becoming a little more aware that we’re here to help as well,” Mckeown said.
People who arrive in the city from elsewhere might need some support until their situation improves.
“People from other parts of Canada are coming here, because the cost of living in B.C. is so outrageously high,” Mailman said. “They’re coming here, but they’ve spent all their money to move here. We see people who even just for a short amount of time are accessing our resources until they’re able to get on their feet here, and then they stop coming.”
Individual situations will determine the duration of support needed. Some only need temporary support until they find a job, but others might experience generational poverty.
The Salvation Army has been able to respond in an effective way to the growing need for food bank support. It made changes to the way the shopping model operates. This approach to food bank use was already implemented before the pandemic. It allows clients to select their own items from shelves, similar to the
experience anyone will have when they visit a grocery store.
However, the growing number of food bank applications does not make the shopping model a practical approach for the time being. Each such visit will take at least 15 minutes for a person to walk through to select items from shelves.
“That model takes time,” Mailman noted. “We say 15 minutes to shop, but it often takes more and then we have to weigh the food. And so it becomes a half hour long appointment. The shopping model with the volume of need that we’re seeing is just not something that we can do at this time.”
The revised approach uses three teams of volunteers to put together hampers. Some team members will use shopping carts to collect items from shelves and others will create meat packs for hampers. This ensures that hampers are ready when people arrive for their appointments.
“It’s like a well-oiled machine,” Mckeown said. “Everybody knows what their task is to do and everybody just chips in and does it.”
There are also volunteer drivers visiting local grocery stores to pick up food bank donations. All items are weighed upon arrival and then stored in appropriate locations. The size of the food bank operation has expanded within the Salvation Army building along with the growing need and it now occupies more space.
Earlier this year the wait period for receiving the next food hamper was changed due to the increasing number of users.
“We had fallen two and a half weeks behind in appointments for people,” Mckeown said. “So the solution for that is to spread out the time between appointments that they have to wait to book another one. That’s for us to stretch it out so everybody gets service in a timely manner.”
Food bank users now have to wait a week longer before their next appointment for a food hamper. It increased from five to six weeks. Those users who live in motels can make their next appointment after three weeks instead of two weeks. The size of food hampers also had to be reduced slightly with a few pounds, but she emphasized this only applies to the basic size of a hamper.
“If we get an abundance of extra things, so chips, toiletries, cookies, crackers, things that aren’t staples, we load up the hampers above what the list says for things,” she explained.
Food bank donations tend to increase during the Christmas period and the support is appreciated, but support is needed throughout the year and sometimes it is necessary to put out an appeal when supplies run low.
“Our first step is to put out an appeal, because we’re a generous community in Swift Current,” Mailman said. “And then we have money in the budget to buy some food, but even buying in bulk has increased. So you’re not getting as much with the dollar amount as you would before and we have to keep it within our budget, because we are a non-profit. So we depend a lot on donations from our community, businesses in Swift Current, other service groups in Swift Current.”
In return, the Salvation Army will share with other community organization wherever possible. For example, larger cuts of meat are not practical for use in food hampers. It will be used for Salvation Army community meals or donated to other service organizations. Any perishable food items that are still remaining on Fridays will be donated to the Swift Current Community Fridge Initiative, which is an independent initiative that operates separate from the Salvation Army.
“When the community fridge started up, we were thinking how can we support
them, because it’s a blessing that we now have two sources of food for people,” Mailman said. “We want to see the food be used to help people, just like we know our community partners do.”
The entire food bank operation at the Salvation Army aims to reduce food wastage to the minimum. Stored items are arranged in a way to ensure they are used before expiry dates. Any excess perishable food items are placed in the Sally Anne’s free market.
“It’s filled with stuff that’s not going to last, like bread,” she said. “When our volunteers go through and sort things, there are sometimes donations that are very close to the best before date and they’ll put those in the free market.”
Even food that cannot be used any longer will not go to waste, because the Salvation Army has an arrangement with several local farmers.
“We have farmers in the area that will come in and they pick up anything that hasn’t perished yet, but will soon,” Mckeown said. “They take it and feed their animals with it. We now have five farmers that we can contact and they’ll come in and grab it.”
The food bank is a complex operation made possible with a lot of helping hands. It requires careful planning to ensure things work efficiently. Anyone doing a food drive for the food bank is therefore requested to call in advance before dropping donated items off, because then arrangements can be made to ensure it can be unloaded. Mailman also urged anyone with questions about the food bank to contact them directly.
“We want to be able to answer them and we want to make sure that they’re getting the most accurate information,” she said. “We are so grateful for this wonderful community and the support that we receive. We couldn’t do what we do without the help of this amazing, generous community.”