The Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank typically sees demand ramp up in November or December of every year.
This year, it started in March and hasn’t slowed down since, said Tyson Elder, operations manager of the Sidney-based food bank, which supports about 1,500 clients a month.
“We have been knocked off our feet with requests. We registered 30 new families in a month, sometimes with seven new families each day. We have trouble keeping food on the shelves.”
Elder said the non-profit, which has been operating since 1984, has seen an increase in the number of seniors coming in, especially after the passing of their partners.
It’s also seeing a growing number of working families dealing with the high cost of housing and everything else, “with stories of rents more than doubling after a move not that uncommon anymore.”
He estimates that 400 to 500 households in the region use the food bank to supplement their provisions.
It’s all coming at a time when donations have dipped, however, as donors themselves feel the pinch of high food prices, leaving them less money to donate.
Food donations are also down, Elder said — not just in volume but in quality. “Sometimes we get food that is well past their expiry date.”
The cost to fill the shelves with fresh, nutritious food has more than doubled in the past year, said Elder, which is why he looks forward to the Times Colonist Christmas Fund every holiday season. So far, the campaign, which launched Nov. 12, has raised $81,105.42.
“The fund makes a huge impact for the organization and our clients,” Elder said. “It enables us to fill their holiday hamper so that they can get their family together for that one time of the year.”
Inside the food bank, food-hamper recipients will find a selection of groceries and a voucher to purchase their turkey and all the trimmings. One thing they won’t find is sugar, with the supply curtailed by an ongoing strike at the Rogers sugar factory in Vancouver.
“But we still have lots of leftover Halloween candy,” said Elder.
Over the Malahat in Duncan, Fatima Da Silva says she squeals with joy and does a celebratory jig whenever she receives the Christmas Fund cheque every holiday season for Nourish Cowichan.
Every day, more than 50 volunteers for Nourish Cowichan prepare healthy school meals for 1,700 students in 23 schools in the Cowichan Valley School District.
“The job is difficult, tiring and mentally draining,” said Da Silva, executive director and co-founder of the Duncan-based charitable society, which was created in 2017. “But getting the cheque means I can get to support more families in the community.”
The biggest challenge facing the society is the rising cost of a number of staples it relies on to make healthy, nutritious meals for the children, Da Silva said.
“There is currently a shortage of sugar, so lately we have had to purchase the small one-kilogram bags instead of the 20-kilogram bags, making all of our baked goods more expensive to produce.”
The price of the spice cumin also spiked from $195 for 25 kilograms to $480, she said.
The society also supports families with a program that sends food home to around 480 households every weekend.
While it started out helping low-income single-parent families, more working single parents are now requesting support, said Da Silva.
She said higher food costs hurt, but the majority of those seeking help cite the increased cost of housing as the factor pushing them over the edge.
“We have a divorced parent with two children who had to move. Her rent went from $1,000 to $2,400 for a new place that was one-third smaller than her former apartment. She now has to work seven days a week to make ends meet,” Da Silva said. “That’s the new reality families are facing these days.”
HOW TO DONATE
You can donate by going to the Times Colonist Christmas Fund web page at tcchristmasfund.com.
That page is linked to CanadaHelps, which is open 24 hours a day and provides an immediate tax receipt.
Or mail a cheque to the Times Colonist Christmas Fund, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, B.C. V9A 6X5.
You can also use your credit card by phoning 250-995-4438 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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