As costs go up, food bank helps more families

Melissa Kent – Finance and Coordinator at Gleaners Food Bank. Photo by Sandeep Kaur

By: Sandeep Kaur

BELLEVILLE – Gleaners Food Bank in Belleville has seen a huge jump in the number of people who need their services.  Thirty per cent more families needed help in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Melissa Kent, the finance and fundraising coordinator at the food bank says the main reasons are that rent and food prices are high. Families are finding it tough to afford everything they need with the money they have.

That need has led the food bank to change the way it delivers food to the people who use it.

“We used to give out hampers once every 28 days, but we have moved it to 21 days,” said Kent.

The change is to help families who are struggling to make ends meet over the course of a month. .

Data from 2022 shows that the food bank supported over 33 thousand families, which is a lot more than in the past years. It also provided more than 10 thousand food hampers and more than 58 hundred new individuals, including more than 2000 children who had not used the food bank before.

There’s another challenge the food bank is facing as a result of tough economic times. Gleaners usually gets food from generous people, but the data shows that donations are going down. Ms. Kent says they need the community to step up and help out.

She stressed how important it is for people to keep supporting the Food Bank. While they got more donations during Christmas, the need is ongoing.

“We used to give milk to everybody but the cost of milk has gone up and our numbers have gone up. So now we only give it to people that are in families” says Kent.

The data also shows that families of all ages come to the food bank, and they adjust the kind of food they give based on family size and dietary needs. They even have a garden for fresh vegetables in the summer.

“I do think there be a lot of local people that would struggle to feed their families or pay their rent or what have you if we weren’t here” said Kent.  

Living in Belleville is the only requirement for help. The organization is adapting to the tough economic times by being more inclusive and offering help more often. It’s a community coming together to fight challenges and support each other during these difficult periods.