Ottawa Food Bank says it’s short on food: ‘Never seen anything like this’ | 24CA News
The Ottawa Food Bank on Monday stated it’s being pressured to chop shifts for volunteers attributable to a scarcity of donated meals — and it’s pointing to the influence of excessive meals costs as a cause for the shortfall.
“We have sadly not received enough donated food in recent weeks to be sorted,” the meals financial institution stated in a put up on social media.
“We recognize this as a sign that high food prices are understandably impacting donor habits,” the put up added.
CEO Rachael Wilson instructed Global News in interview that sometimes, there’s sufficient meals within the group’s warehouse for 10 sorting shifts per week.
On Monday, she stated the present meals inventory may very well be sorted in a single shift. Available sorting shifts have been minimize in half, she added.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” she stated.
The shortfall comes as demand continues to spike. Wilson stated the meals financial institution is on monitor to see a document half one million visits by the tip of this yr, up from over 400,000 visits within the earlier fiscal yr.
In order to maintain up, Wilson stated the meals financial institution was pressured to spend $900,000 of its personal cash — most of it donated and fundraised — in July, and will spend much more this month.
“We have to buy more and more food to keep up with demand,” she stated.
The Ottawa Food Bank isn’t the one one which has seen struggles to satisfy demand in latest weeks.
Earlier this month, the smaller Beacon House charity in Sackville, N.S., posted footage of its meals financial institution warehouse to social media and famous its cabinets had by no means “been so bare,” including it was “desperate” for donations.
The charity later stated donors had stepped up, however was persevering with to see a necessity for sure gadgets like boxed cereal, juice and child meals.
Food costs are persevering with to outpace total inflation after seeing an enormous spike since late final yr. The value of groceries grew 8.5 per cent in July in contrast with final yr, down from a 9.1-per cent year-over-year acquire in June, in accordance with Statistics Canada. That’s far down from the three.3 headline inflation charge in July, which has considerably fallen from a excessive of greater than eight per cent final yr.
Not all charities are seeing these costs influence donations, nonetheless. The Calgary Food Bank stated it was maintaining with demand, which is up 30 per cent year-over-year, and was presently sending out 700 hampers of meals per day.
The Greater Vancouver Food Bank, in the meantime, has stopped accepting private meals donations and is relying solely on trade donations, together with meals rejected by retailers for beauty causes or extra provide.
“We no longer accept food drives or donations from the public because the quality was so poor, and it took up valuable volunteer and staff time to address,” CEO Cynthia Boulter instructed Global News in an e-mail.
“We have been fortunate with our supply of keen volunteers, both individuals and groups, and we offer them a regular schedule of warehouse, distribution and community agency support shifts, and some office shifts depending on the season.”
Wilson with the Ottawa Food Bank stated a part of the issue stands out as the lack of presidency funding in Ontario for meals banks in comparison with different provinces.
Her group is 98-per cent funded by the neighborhood, she stated. The most up-to-date fiscal yr noticed simply $392,000 in authorities grants, out of over $27 million donated to the meals financial institution.
By comparability, Food Banks BC acquired greater than $2.2 million in authorities grants and funding final yr in accordance with its newest fiscal assertion, and the Alberta authorities has earmarked $20 million over the subsequent two years particularly to assist meals banks.
Wilson stated she stays hopeful the autumn and winter months will see a holiday-fuelled improve in donations. But she admitted that her charity could solely have the ability to survive one other few years and not using a main funding inflow.
“Buying most of the food ourselves, it’s just not sustainable,” she stated.
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