KAKABEKA FALLS — The majority of people relying on a Kakabeka Falls food bank are seniors who struggle to make ends meet on meagre pensions and incomes, organizers say.
"They are getting older," Rural Cupboard Food Bank board member and treasurer Kimm White said on Friday. "About 68 per cent are elderly."
She added: "People are having to make hard choices — like can I afford to eat and also heat my house? The cost of gas, food, rent and heating fuel have really gone up."
The food bank attached to the Conmee Community Centre was founded in 2002 out of a realization that rural residents also struggled to pay the bills, but couldn't afford to access relief services in Thunder Bay.
"The biggest issue is that there are many resources in the city, and very little outside the city," said White, who joined the Rural Cupboard board about 10 years ago.
Demand for food has risen by nearly 20 per cent since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Even people working two jobs are still needing help," White said.
Some say the big grocery chains are partially to blame.
Hygiene supplies part of Rural Cupboard's helpful ways
In a bulletin about the cost of living this week, NDP MP Carol Hughes said "more and more working people are using food banks at a time where major grocery chains are smashing profit records."
"It's quite obvious a significant part of the problem we face now is the over-concentration of a few large players driving up food prices, with the data suggesting food price increases trending up before last year's inflation crisis even began," added Hughes (Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing).
It costs about $120,000 per year to operate the Rural Cupboard Food Bank. The budget depends on donations of cash and food, as well as grants.
It's open once a month and also offers a lunch program. On Wednesday, the food bank was visited by more than 180 families, White said.
Rural Cupboard also distributes personal hygiene supplies to people in need.
White says if clients lack basic items like soap and toothpaste, they can lose their sense of dignity and be ashamed to appear in public.
"We don't want people to have to make those kind of choices," she said.
Meanwhile, White and other board members are mourning Rural Cupboard co-founder and long-time volunteer Gladys Grant, who died earlier this month after an illness.
"Through her years on the board as the vice chair and chair and helping at every food bank distribution day, (Grant) always had a smile on her face and her laugh was infectious," a Facebook post said.
"She cared about each and every person who crossed her path and she will be truly missed by everyone who knew her," it added.
White said she agreed whole-heartedly.
Rural Cupboard can be contacted by email at ruralcupboardfoodbank@gmail.com.
The Chronical Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
