DRYDEN — With the rising cost of inflation affecting all corners of the economy, food banks across the country are feeling the effects more people are asking for help.
In the Dryden area, that need was particularly pronounced within the last few months when the local food bank was becoming dangerously close to empty back in September.
“The increase is a reflection of usage happening across Canada. It’s not just a Northwest Ontario blip in the radar, it’s across all of the country, where usage of food banks is up. The Food Bank of Canada report that recently came out the hunger count showed that its usage since March was 15 per cent,” said Al Huckabay, the manager of the Dryden Food Bank.
“At the Dryden Food Bank, we have witnessed a 14 per cent increase in usage since March.”
Huckabay said all types of people are struggling with food insecurity.
“Those that are working whether it’s full-time or part-time, and the money they are making is not able to stretch far enough to purchase food, pay rent, and pay the heating costs. That’s 14 per cent is across the board of individuals needing to access the food bank” Huckabay said.
Huckabay said the food bank's demand for services has increased 30 per cent since the spring of 2020.
“It’s a reflection of what is happening economically. The cost of food and taxes has just really created some problems for people to be able to put food on the table and shelves in their own homes and it’s created that need for the food banks to step up and help people,” Huckabay said.
Since September, the Dryden Food Bank has been reaching out for public support through food drives and requests for donations. Huckabay said Dryden’s local retail stores donate near expired products to the food bank through a second harvest program, which is for products past their commercial sell-by date, and are still healthy to consume. These products are non-perishable food items.
For fresh food items, the Dryden Food Bank relies on corporate and government grants to fill its shelves.
Organizations like the Nuclear Waste Management Organization approach the Dryden Food Bank to fill out NWMO’s regional sponsorship and donations program, which recently provided the food bank with $5,000 to support the food hamper programs.
“We believe in supporting the communities we engaged with and helping the Dryden food banks in its essential mission is very important to the NWMO. We are happy that we can help out,” said Vince Ponka, the regional communications manager for the NWMO. “We strive to be good neighbours and to support the communities where we live and work.”
Huckabay said the shelves at the Queen Street food bank are starting to refill.
“We are thankful for that as the holiday season is coming. Up here it’s going to become busier and busier. We want to make sure we have enough food to be able to give to our clients,” Huckabay said.
However, Huckabay expresses that there is still much more work to do, with an increase in usage coming up as the holiday season approaches.
“For us, it’s a constant letting the public know that there are those within our community that are struggling with food insecurity and that we are doing our best we can to try to alleviate that,” Huckabay said.
“I think it’s also our governments, whether it provincially or federally, they need to see that there is a need out there right now and people are struggling, Canadians are struggling, people in northwestern Ontario are struggling to purchase food. The cost of food in this area is very very high and so anything they can do to help alleviate that food insecurity is helpful.”
