Whitchurch Stouffville Food Bank looking for larger space after usage uptick

With end of government subsidies, food bank has seen large trend of new clients

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 7, 2021
Simon Martin

Things are tight for Susan Smith and Julie Stevens at the Whitchurch Stouffville Food Bank. The co-chairs have been co-ordinating the efforts to get food to those in need since a month before the pandemic struck in March 2020.

"I remember the first time we met, we said, you know, there's this COVID thing happening on the other side of the world," Stevens said.

While the food bank received great support from Stouffville residents they were forced to downsize last December. The landlord at Ringwood decided to sell, which forced Smith and Stevens to reduce the space they use for food storage, among other things, by 50 per cent. "We've had to downsize the amount of food," Smith said.

One trip to collect the bins located at Metro and No Frills and there is nowhere else for donations to go. "We need every aisle free so we physically don't have space," Stevens said. They have shelves on rollers and have to move them just to sort food.

The co-chair have been asking for monetary donations or grocery store gift cards so they can purchase the items they need for their clients but that request isn't always understood by donors. "We get a lot of 'what kind of food bank doesn't take food' and yet we looked at messaging from across the country and there's a lot of food banks saying the same thing," Smith said. COVID brought added complications because they needed to reduce the number of volunteers coming into the food bank.

The food bank has been looking for a new spot with more space for around 18 months but it has proven a challenge. "We would like that nice, warm waiting room that we used to have, where the coffee was always on and the clients could come in and we can't do that during COVID," Smith said.

"We need somewhere with a bit of privacy for the clients, with at least 2,000 square feet. And we need a roll-up door. "There is nothing available."

There is some worry that space constraints will become an even greater problem as Stouffville continues to grow and food bank usage increases.

Smith said since all the government subsidies have wrapped up they are seeing a large trend of new clients. The demand was felt across the province. "We have never had to turn a client away because of the lack of food," Stevens said.

Feed Ontario released its 2021 Hunger Report Nov. 30, revealing a record 592,308 people accessed emergency food support last year, visiting more than 3.6 million times. This is an increase of 10 per cent and 12 per cent respectively over the previous year.

The 2021 Hunger Report noted that while pandemic response measures, like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), helped many Canadians avert crisis, some of the province’s most vulnerable citizens still fell through the cracks. This is reflected in the report’s data, which showed that CERB recipients represented less than one per cent of those who accessed food banks last year, compared to a staggering 36 per cent increase in the number of older adults turning to food banks for support.

“The rising number of older adults relying on food banks for assistance is a trend that we have been monitoring closely since 2017,” said Siu Mee Cheng, interim executive director, Feed Ontario.

“While there are a number of contributing factors to this trend, the most significant is how the growing lack of affordability associated with housing and the cost of living have become, particularly for those on a fixed income and low-income earners.”

Food items the food bank needs include canned fruit, hearty soups, and peanut-free snacks like granola bars. The food bank would prefer monetary donations in order to make just-in-time purchases. You can donate by visiting the website at wsfoodbank.ca

"Stouffville is actually amazing," Stevens said. "The people of Stouffville want to support in any way they can."