Food bank drives through crisis
Volunteers hand out envelopes with grocery store gift cards instead of the usual food baskets. Organizers switched from walk-in service to keep clients, volunteers safe
It’s barely 8 a.m. on Saturday and more than two dozen vehicles, many of them minivans, are snaking their way through the giant parking lot in Mississauga.
They’ve been lining up at the city’s drive-thru food bank, at the Islamic Society of North America high school and mosque, since about 4:30 a.m. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, some people like to be first, says ISNA Canada’s volunteer treasurer, Nabeel Mirza.
But the food bank has only been operating as a drive-thru for a few weeks — since April, when the crisis really took hold.
“We were really apprehensive. We didn’t want to come across as violating protocols and the physical distancing that government has been putting in place, but we also knew the demand is increasing,” said Faisal Shaheen, food bank co-chair.
The ISNA food bank started about 12 years ago, delivering food to 13 families. This past March, it served about 400 families. Demand has ramped up since COVID-19, with 500 to 700 families now served per month.
About 60 per cent of clients are from Peel Region, while others come from as far away as Ajax, Vaughan, Kitchener-Waterloo and Hamilton, on the first Saturday of each month between 6:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Volunteers at the non-profit, charitable agency take each vehicle occupant’s name and information to a table, where another volunteer hands over a white envelope, which is then relayed back to the car and passed through the window. Inside each envelope is a grocery store gift card.
All the volunteers wore masks, many were in fully protective, opaque face shields, and everyone took care to stay two metres apart and, as much as possible, back from the cars.
“A lot of our clients are from immigrant, refugee communities, marginalized, racialized. There are a lot of barriers for them to actually access other social services and perhaps other food banks in the GTA. We felt compelled that we have to stay open,” said Shaheen.
Many people from those communities are part-time labourers and casual workers with few employment benefits, he said.
“We know from studies they are vulnerable to high rents, and the expense which suffers in their families is what’s put on the table,” Shaheen added.
Normally, clients receive a food basket that includes staples such as lentils and rice. But the pandemic has prompted a re-think. Now users get a grocery gift card valued at $25 to $60, depending on the size of the family.
The organizers stress that anyone, regardless of religion or place of residence, is welcome and although it’s a drive-thru, those who take the bus or walk to the centre will also be served.
The food bank operates on more than $300,000 per year raised through the community. But this year will be more difficult, said Mirza, the volunteer treasurer. “More people will lose their jobs and the need will become higher.”
But, he added, “COVID-19 has brought the humanity out in us.”