{"id":578,"date":"2022-11-25T19:07:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T00:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/?p=578"},"modified":"2022-11-25T19:07:48","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T00:07:48","slug":"food-banks-struggle-to-meet-holiday-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/2022\/11\/25\/food-banks-struggle-to-meet-holiday-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Food banks struggle to meet holiday demand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By: Taylor O&#8217;Brien<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Food banks and charities are looking for food and monetary donations to support those most in need this holiday season. But this year, inflated living costs are putting these organizations in a tight spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While demand for donated goods is higher, charitable organizations across the city are not seeing the same volume of donations as previous years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur clients are often living on the edge,\u201d said George Macdonald, president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barrhavenfoodcupboard.ca\/\">Barrhaven Food Cupboard<\/a>. \u201cThey don\u2019t have much money for all their expenses and with the cost of food going up the way it has, many of them are pushed to the point where they need additional help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the organization experienced a 45 per cent increase in the demand for food this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are not compromising on the quality or the quantity of the food we are providing, but we\u2019re being challenged [in] getting the necessary food and cash donations to sustain the supply.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thank you Barrhaven! Our hearts are full and we are overwhelmed by your support at the Santa Claus Parade. Thank you for braving the cold and helping your neighbours in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/mybarrhaven?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#mybarrhaven<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qMaMf5jGjM\">pic.twitter.com\/qMaMf5jGjM<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Barrhaven Food Cupboard (@BarrhavenFood) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BarrhavenFood\/status\/1594507287267532801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 21, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Barrhaven Food Cupboard has seen a decrease in their donations. They use social media to campaign and encourage community members to help raise money and donate food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Across the city, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawaboothcentre.org\/\">Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre<\/a> is also struggling to meet its clients\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll donations have gone down,\u201d said Marc Provost, executive director of the organization. \u201cSo we buy more, but that\u2019s beyond what we have budgeted. And the demand is much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alex Noreau is the interim communications manager for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ottawafoodbank.ca\/\">Ottawa Food Bank<\/a>, which runs 112 community and emergency food banks across the city.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said the organization is projected to spend $6 million on food this year. This is triple the amount they spent annually before the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Noreau emphasized the importance of the signature holiday food drives to keep food banks supplied during their busiest time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s the generosity of our community members coming together to make those monetary donations or non perishable food donations that really ensure our shelves are stocked,\u201d she said, adding these fundraising events are critical to keeping the shelves stocked through the winter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Toy-mountain-People-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Two men stand next to a cardboard bin full of stuffed animals.\" class=\"wp-image-580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Toy-mountain-People-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Toy-mountain-People-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Toy-mountain-People-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Toy-mountain-People-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Toy-mountain-People-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Salvation Army\u2019s Toy Mountain campaign has seen an \u201cexcessively high\u201d demand this holiday season. (Submitted by Caroline Franks)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, food banks and shelters alike said that the importance of giving to food banks this holiday season could not be overstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Macdonald said it is important to recognize many community members in various economic situations are temporarily or permanently unemployed and have difficulties feeding their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Across the city, there are \u201cnew Canadians, single parent families, disabled people, elderly people, that really are struggling and have difficulty with finances these days,\u201d Macdonald said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s important for all of us to recognize that and do what we can to help alleviate the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Noreau agreed donations and volunteered time are critical to helping food banks support low-income people in this city, while noting longer term solutions are needed to properly address food insecurity.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMore food is not the solution to solving food insecurity,\u201d Noreau said. \u201cIt has to come from income-based solutions, affordable housing solutions and increased mental health support solutions to really make a difference in the lives of those affected by food insecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Food banks and charities are looking for food and monetary donations to support those most in need this holiday season, but inflated living costs are putting these organizations in a tight spot. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"The Barrhaven Food Cupboard receives a donation from a local grocery store in 2022. (Submitted by George Macdonald)","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[77,8,9],"ppma_author":[28],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-inflation","tag-news","tag-ottawa"],"authors":[{"term_id":28,"user_id":8,"is_guest":0,"slug":"taylorobrien","display_name":"Taylor O'Brien","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124318_590-scaled-e1668556788470.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124318_590-scaled-e1668556788470.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"O'Brien","first_name":"Taylor","description":"Taylor was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ont. She has a passion for writing about politics and following the world of figure skating. During the pandemic, she took up running and listening to podcasts on Glee - the greatest show ever. Taylor\u2019s new normal includes mindlessly scrolling TikTok and ensuring she never leaves the house without a mask."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}