PALMERSTON ‒ Volunteers at the Palmerston Food Bank say their new facility brings them one step closer to addressing the increased need they’ve seen from their community.
Now located at 215 William St., food bank board chair Deanna Martin said the search for the new location began in 2021 after ongoing issues with accessibility working at their previous spot, the basement of Palmerston United Church.
“Not only are volunteers getting older and finding it more difficult to let groceries down the stairs and back up again, but a lot of our clients have physical limitations,” said Martin. “So it was primarily a question of stairs.”
But Martin said the new, larger space and donated appliances from the local legion and township came at the perfect time as their client base has almost doubled in the last year.
“Before we did have some issues with space, there's no doubt about it,” said Martin. “When there's a really good sale we want to stock up if it's something that our clients will use but we didn't really have the ability to do that before.”
Last July, Martin said the food bank handed out 10 hampers maximum.
Now, the food bank gives out between 30 to 50 hampers monthly and receives 10 to 12 requests on a weekly basis.
“People that are working full time still can't make it (at the end of the month),” said Martin. “And it's strictly a question of housing and food costs and their incomes have not risen to meet those challenges.”
Martin said many of their clients live in subsidized housing and rely on services like ODSP but often “can’t pay their rent and eat at the same time.”
"My husband and I (commute to Listowel for groceries) because it's cheaper," said Martin. "But for the people that are in town that have no access to anything other than the local grocery stores, prices can be higher."
The food bank's volunteers have also been forced to make "much larger" purchases so that they can keep enough supplies on hand to accommodate client volumes. Last year, they would purchase between two to three loaves of bread per grocery trip; now it's closer to a dozen.
With schools closed for the summer, they're also seeing more children, with Martin saying they fed close to 17 kids one weekend.
“I’m pretty confident in saying our need is going to increase over time,” said Martin. “I think that as prices increase, (more people will) need help and the food banks are going to become even more important.”
Hampers have a value of $100 to $150 and were previously handed out on a strict once-a-month basis, although Martin said many clients are asking that this be upped to bi-weekly which they've recently started to accommodate.
The group recently partnered with Fresh Start Bakery in Gowanstown, which allows them to offer extra goods like cookies that they aren’t always able to afford with the additional budget crunch.
“Palmerston used to be pretty inexpensive,” said Martin. “A lot of people would live up here and commute to Waterloo but with the price of gas and everything else, people are starting to say ‘well geez, I don't know whether it's worth it anymore’.”
During a council meeting in Minto last week, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee asked staff to look into the feasibility of three community pantries to help address the increased need.
However, Martin said that it will be hard to find a location that "can preclude vandalism but still maintain a client’s confidentiality."
“We stagger people every 15 minutes so that we don't have to be concerned with them being embarrassed for their neighbour to know that they're accessing the food bank,” said Martin. “If we were to put something like (a community pantry) on the main street, say in front of Foodland, people would feel a stigma attached to going and taking anything from it.”
Looking to the future, the food bank is also looking to attract a younger volunteer base to help its current group, in addition to financial and other donations.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
