Record demand for food bank at Neighbour to Neighbour Centre
It's something they dread doing.
For the first time in more than 30 years of feeding the community, Neighbour to Neighbour Centre may have to start turning people away from the busy food bank if the record demand for food services continues to spike upward.
That is frightening," said Neighbour to Neighbour executive director Denise Arkell, as the Athens Street food bank grapples with an upsurge in demand of nearly 25 per cent since the beginning of the year. I can definitely say in the 30 years I've worked for this organization, I've never seen us in a position that we could be, down the pipe, to turn people away."
Arkell is quick to add if they ever have to turn anyone away, those people will be directed to the meal programs at the Hamilton Community Food Centre which is run by Neighbour to Neighbour Centre.
After serving 1,200 to 1,300 households per month last year, the food bank served 1,457 families in January, compared to 1,102 families in January 2022 and 1,372 households in February compared to 1,091 last year.
Food bank service is by appointment only.
Charlotte Redekop-Young, manager of emergency food services at Neighbour to Neighbour, said the February number would have likely reached 1,400 households if they hadn't had to close for a snow day.
She attributes the increased demand to the rising cost of food and rent and precarious employment.
It's devastating; it's frustrating" said Redekop-Young who noted they saw 97 families use the food bank for the first time in January and 115 last month, nearly double the 2022 figures, adding they started to see their client numbers start to increase about a year ago.
Redekop-Young said they are now trying to prepare to serve up to 1,500 households monthly in the weeks to come.
But, if demand continues to surge, Arkell noted they will not be able to handle it.
If in fact our numbers continue to increase, we do not have the capacity from an appointment standpoint to take on additional clients," Arkell said. If it goes up another 100 to 200 (households) we will not be able to (service) that unless we open at night and we don't have the financial capabilities to do that."
The centre needs more donations of food and money.
A lot more.
Redekop-Young said, according to a study they did, the average household gets about 36 kilograms (80 pounds) of food per visit and the spike in demand means they will have to collect an additional 109,000 kilograms (240,000 pounds) to meet the need.
She said they collected about 453,000 kilograms (one million pounds) of food last year and donations so far are down about four per cent from 2022.
The food bank also gets thousands of kilograms of fresh produce each growing season from community gardens and other supporters, but Redekop-Young noted all those vegetables will be spread thinner among their clients due to the increase in demand.
Despite inflation, she noted the community continues to support the centre and she is hopeful they can collect more than a million pounds of food again this year, noting community food drives have returned.
The need for food bank services is growing across Hamilton.
The whole system is seeing an unprecedented increase in demand," said Karen Randell, operations manager at Hamilton Food Share which supports 17 food banks and six hot meal programs in the city.
Randell said the jump in demand is likely well over 10 per cent city-wide.
Food share will have a better idea in the coming weeks when they collect all the food bank data for their annual Hamilton Hunger Report.
When there's an increase in access it means more food is needed across the system," Randell said. (We encourage) people to continue to run food drives and provide financial support to their community food banks to make sure people experiencing hunger have access to the resources they need."
STORY BEHIND THE STORY:Hamilton Community News wanted to learn more about the surge in demand for food bank services at Neighbour to Neighbour Centre.