WATCH ABOVE: Some Moncton residents are demanding better access to food banks in the area, saying the hours they are open doesn’t meet their needs. Global’s Brion Robinson reports.
MONCTON – A Moncton poverty awareness group says people deserve better access to food banks in the community.
Amanda Pooley speaks for What Kids Need Moncton Inc., a charity group that helps supply children with toys, food and clothing.
Last week, Pooley and other volunteers set up food serving stations around Moncton.
“We did 19 meals in total from the last Thursday until the final Sunday and we served about 1,500 people,” she said.
That was around the first seven days of the month when food banks traditionally close their doors. That’s because people on social assistance receive payments during that time.
But Pooley says sometimes there still isn’t enough money for them to buy food.
“We’ve certainly become aware that there’s a gap in service and we’re going to try and fill it,” she said.
Natasha Zohou says she goes to the Karing Kitchen soup kitchen once a week to get bread for her friends and neighbours.
She says she would like to use the food banks but she doesn’t have time to go to them during the day while she’s working.
“Even if they opened an hour earlier as opposed to 10 o’clock they opened at nine I find they might help more families and even myself I’d be able to go,” she said.
Ben MacMichael manages the West End Food Bank and says when his food bank closes for an extended period of time clients are notified well in advance.
MacMichael also says people can still get food even when its doors are closed.
“We’ll get food and meet them here at the building if they can make it out here,” he said. “If not I will try to get food and meet them where they’re at.”
He says he would like to see a more centralized system where food banks are working together.
“We want to collaborate with many different organizations in our city to help as many people as possible,” he said.
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