CONCEPTION BAY NORTH, N.L.
When the chairwoman for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank in Carbonear started receiving text messages Wednesday about a fire at the Community Food Sharing Association warehouse in Mount Pearl, she was immediately gutted by the news.
“Then I read the news report where it said the staff was OK,” Kerri Abbott told The Compasss, noting this came as a relief to her. “We’ve come to know them, so knowing they were all safe was the first thing on our mind.”
The fire ruined the organization’s massive inventory and left it scrambling to find new space to begin stocking supplies. A lot of food and monetary donations are already pouring in thanks to the general public’s generosity, and the provincial government has kicked in some funds and provided a new temporary storage space for the association through an Eastern Health property.
While based in the St. John’s metro area, the Community Food Sharing Association also serves communities elsewhere on the Avalon Peninsula, including food banks in Conception Bay North.
Grant Koehler, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank in Harbour Grace, said his food bank only sought help from the association once last year. But he cautioned too its service remains important to smaller food banks like the one in Harbour Grace.
“The Food Sharing (Association) is a wonderful, wonderful group to fall back on. If we don’t have the funds, we can go to them, and we know we’re always going to get something from them. And not to have that, it’s kind of like someone cutting off your line of credit … And we have used them on occasion. But I don’t like to use them very often, because I know there’s people a lot worse off than we are.”
The Harbour Grace food bank gets a lot of generous support, particularly around Christmas time. Koehler also commends the help of business and parishioners from three local churches — St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, St. Paul’s Anglican Church and Coughlan United Church.
“Fortunately, we do have enough funds that we can sustain ourselves,” he said.
In Carbonear, the need for help from the Community Food Sharing Association has diminished over the years thanks to increased public awareness of the local food bank. That’s the case despite the fact demand for its service has risen dramatically over the years. When Abbott first became involved with the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank in Carbonear back in 2013, it served 132 households. These days, that number fluctuates between 600 to 800 depending on the month.
“We were heavily reliant on the Community Food Sharing Association back in 2013,” Abbott said. “Now we’ve maintained our awareness and people know about us, and we’ve been able to do food drives to help us with our own stock. But the Community Food Sharing Association has always been there to help us. Donations are down this time of the year, and with the economy donations are down regardless, so we always knew we could go to the Community Food Sharing Association, because they’re there to help.”
That sort of help came into play most recently last Christmas. Abbott said the food bank would not have been able to include eggs in the Christmas hampers without the association’s support.
Helping matters is the fact food banks received so many donations in the lead up to Christmas. Abbott expects her organization won’t be facing major challenges with supply until the summer comes. Once school children find themselves home all day, demand traditionally increases amongst families.
The Helping Hand food bank in Bay Roberts has the luxury of a revenue stream through its thrift shop, and there’s also a solid supply of food in stock thanks to the Christmas food drives. Manager Darlene Kearley expects the food bank will be in good shape until at least March. She said Helping Hand has received help from the Community Food Sharing Association at times, but less so in recent years.
Locally, there are some activities underway to help the Community Food Sharing Association. The Knights of Columbus in Carbonear has been accepting donations at its building on Adelaide Street, and the Tri Pen Osprey hockey plan to do the same during a pair of games this weekend — Saturday in Bay Roberts at 8 p.m. and Sunday in Harbour Grace at 10 a.m.
