Abbotsford food bank helped when she was down on her luck
‘They made such a difference and I’m forever grateful,’ mother of three says
After working in banking for 18 years, from teller to loan administrator, and helping to run her own restaurant in Mission for a year and a half, Erica Friberg needed help.
She, and two of her three children, left a relationship and sought help at the Women’s Resource Society in Mission. There, she was referred to a second-stage halfway house, where she had a subsidized apartment in a building that was home to other single moms and to women transitioning out of rehab.
“It was women and children only and it was a safe space for them (her two teens),” Friberg said.
Unemployed and on social assistance for six months after moving out, she was grateful for help with groceries from the local food bank, now called Archway Community Services. Archway’s Christmas bureau receives funding from The Province Empty Stocking Fund and uses it to buy hampers, items for families and gifts for teens.
“They definitely didn’t make me feel less-than or shameful,” she said. “They treat people like people.”
Archway (then Abbotsford Community Services) had set up a satellite food bank at the housing complex, which was especially appreciated by her and other residents, who would either have to bundle up their kids on the bus or take a costly cab ride to visit the food bank.
“We couldn’t go to the food bank, so they brought the food bank to us,” Friberg said.
That was seven years ago. Today, Friberg’s teens are adults and her youngest son is back living with her as a teenager. She is telling her story in the hope that it will help others know it’s OK to ask for help during a rough patch.
After she was housed, she was referred to a non-profit group that helps people with barriers to employment, teaching them how to prepare a resume and how to identify their personality types.
“It was a month long and it was life-changing for me. It was an amazing program,” she said.
She got a job as a part-time bartender at the Abbotsford Legion and eventually became the manager. Those skills and the skills she later built working as assistant manager at a non-profit in Mission designed to help the marginalized gain employment skills, gave her the idea, with three others, to open a café that will teach homeless people job skills.
“The whole reason I went to the food bank was that I needed help at the time,” she said.
“Without them supporting me and feeding my kids, I couldn’t have provided my children with a Christmas for two years. They made such a difference and I’m forever grateful.”
The help they received wasn’t all in material goods.
She and her son were walking past a Salvation Army kettle the other day and “he stopped and took out some change. I didn’t even prompt him. That’s my 14-year-old son.”
Giving back gives her purpose and joy — “it’s my happy place” — and changed her outlook.
“If I hadn’t had the struggle I had, I wouldn’t be in the place that I am,” Friberg said.
“Sometimes we have to lose everything to gain everything.”