SASKATOON – In the past year, the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre has seen a spike in demand for emergency food hampers, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
“Three year ago, we were seeing about 12,000 people per month, that jumped to 15,000 and now this year we are seeing in excess of 20,000 people per month,” food bank operations director Deborah Hamp said.
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Summer is one of the busiest times for the organization.
“Lots of families have kids out of school and so those lunch programs aren’t accessible anymore. So we actually see our numbers go up a little bit in the summer,” food bank executive director Laurie O’Connor said.
In fact, almost half of the people who access the food bank are children and the weaker Canadian economy isn’t helping decrease their need.
“There’s various reasons. We know that the cost of living keeps on getting higher. We know that we are faced with community members dealing with inadequate minimum wage that’s not keeping with expenses. The cost of rent, the cost of food, people are forced to choose between the two,” said Hamp.
That’s why Saturday’s 11th annual, city-wide “Food Drive” is so important. Organizers are hoping it will bring a much needed supply refill.
“I’m hoping we can bring in 100,000 pounds of food today because we really need to re-stock our shelves,” O’Connor said.
Volunteers have been busy picking up donation bags from doorsteps and grocery stores across the city since 10 o’clock this morning. Organizers think they’ll be able to collect a record amount of donations this year.
“Just a huge thank you to everyone for putting their bag on their doorstep today. We simple wouldn’t be able to operate to the capacity that we do without the support of every organization that kicked in and every citizen of Saskatoon that kicked in,” O’Connor said.
A final total of donations in pounds will be tallied up Monday.
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