As the Salvation Army’s Bayside Mission Meal Program ends, other social services providers are concerned about the gap it leaves in the community.
The community meal program was started in 2013 in Barrie at the request of the County of Simcoe, initially providing 60 healthy meals a day, and at its height was providing 12,000 meals per month.
“I believe it is going to leave a gap in the community, and I know that there are groups of people that are coming together to try to fill those gaps, at least in the interim, as well as look at what the effects of this could look like long term,” said Sara Peddle, the Busby Centre’s executive director.
“One of the things with community meals is that we know that people are coming to them because of the high cost of housing, so we’re concerned that without these community meals being available, they will stop paying their rent because they need to eat something, and then evictions can happen, and then we’re seeing more people come into homelessness, which is really would be really devastating.”
Earlier this week, the Salvation Army announced that after 10 years of consultation with the county, it would end the program at the end of the month and that the funds would be dispersed among other agencies to support multiple food insecurity programs.
“As we were coming to this time of the year, engaging with the county of Simcoe and talking through what the community meal program might look like in the future with the consultation, the County of Simcoe and the Salvation Army, we decided now was the best time to end the community meal program as it has been,” said Glenn van Gulik, divisional secretary for public relations with Salvation Army Ontario.
He said over the last few months, it has seen the number of meals it was providing go down to what it was before the pandemic.
He said the hope is that instead of everyone having to come to one place, by spreading out the funding, more people will be able to get the meals where they are, whether that be a warming station or other shelter.
“We’re hoping and confident that distribution of the supports and where meals are available, more places will afford us better options for individuals who are struggling right now,” van Gulik said.
The mission has stated it will continue to provide meals for those in its emergency shelter.
But with the program ending, other agencies have expressed concerns that the program’s end will leave a gap in service for people needing a hot meal.
“So we are concerned, for sure, that there’s going to be an increase of people that need food security and food support over the next while with this transition of these programs ending,” Peddle said.
“They’ve been a staple within the community for many years, and the Salvation Army has done an amazing job over these last however many years, and now we have people living in poverty, experiencing homelessness, precariously housed, that relied on those that meal program.”
She said Busby Centre is concerned the program’s end will lead to accessibility challenges for people not in the shelter system who are precariously housed and people who are living out on the street.
Peddle said while the emergency shelter program will receive some of the additional funds being redistributed, it will cover the rising cost of food and higher demand.
She notes with the program’s end, the centre is expecting to see more people accessing its outreach van, which provides emergency food bags and grocery bags.
Meanwhile, the Barrie Food Bank has just launched its Spring Food Drive to help refill shelves quickly due to increased demand for service.
More than 3,900 individuals used the food bank in February, with usage up 53 per cent year over year.
Sharon Palmer, the food bank’s executive director, said the need for the service has never been greater, with more people visiting the food bank for the first time in their lives.
Palmer said that with the end of the Salvation Army’s program, the food bank is expected to see an increase in people accessing its monthly hamper program and emergency bag program for people without a fixed address.
“I expect that will see a significant increase in people coming for that emergency bag support in the next little while,” she said.
She said the food bank and other agencies are currently looking at how to fill the gap left by the end of the hot meal program.
“For those people who are homeless, that is something that I think they really value and certainly important for their health. So that’s a gap that we’re all looking for a solution to,” she said.