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The Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre is doing what it can to cope with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic all while preparing for an expected steep increase in the number of people it serves.
The food bank’s Executive Director, Laurie O’Connor, looks back at the 2008 recession as an example of what the country’s food banks might be in store for with the ongoing pandemic.
“We know that a shock to the economy and to the entire country (something) like this will take us years to recover from,” she said.
“We typically see about 20,000 people every month and so we expect to see an increase but we just don’t know what that’s going to look like yet. We are slowly seeing numbers come up but across the country, food banks are predicting that our numbers could go up by 50 per cent.”
On top of the already stressful situation for a lot of people, the food bank has had to make several changes to its operation to stay in line with all of the health guidelines that are in place right now. These include closing the income tax program, a lot of the learning programs and the clothing depot as well as decreasing the number of donations it is asking for from the community.
“We don’t want to ask folks to go out and get food for us because people are supposed to stay home as much as they can. So we’re not making a big call for folks to donate to us. If they are grocery shopping and they can put a few extra items in the bin that would be wonderful,” said O’Connor.
“So we are definitely seeing some donations decrease. Supply chains are a little bit stressed at this time so we want to be able to ensure that we’ll be able to have enough food through the door to be able to give out to folks and we are looking at that costing us over $300,000 a month.”
The food bank’s increasing costs can be daunting but luckily there is continuous support from the community.
Tuesday, March 31st is the Rawlco Radio Day of Caring for the Saskatoon Food Bank. Rawlco Radio is getting it started with a one-million-dollar donation to the Regina and Saskatoon Food Banks. You can help by donating online at www.saskatoonfoodbank.org or at www.reginafoodbank.ca. Phone capabilities are limited, so the food banks request all donations and questions go to their websites.