Increasing demand for hampers has Harvest Manitoba frequently setting new delivery records.
The organization recently hit a new high after giving out over 14,000 hampers in August. A year ago, the group averaged 11,000 deliveries.
Harvest CEO Vince Barletta told 680 CJOB that “price inflation across the board” continues to be the reason more Manitobans are in need.
“The numbers just continue to grow and grow and grow — food insecurity all across our province, driven by issues that we’ve been seeing for the better part of the past year now.”
According to Barletta, a typical hamper weighs 30 to 35 pounds and contains nonperishables like soup and dry pasta along with fresh produce from farmers and gardeners who donate their surplus stock. For families with kids and infants, hampers contain extras like milk and baby formula.
“We know that’s not going to meet a household’s needs for the entire month, but we certainly hope and we know that it helps thousands of households stretch their limited grocery dollars even further by getting that support.”
Barletta said he doesn’t see the demand lessening any time soon.
“Again, the big, big driver of this increased demand in Winnipeg at food banks all across Manitoba … continues to be inflation. I hope that we’re starting to see it level off, but I think it’s going to be quite a long time before this works its way through the economy, and I think we’re going to see a lot of need in the months ahead.”
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