Erin Katerynych speaks to an audience during the Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre AGM on Tuesday, June 11. (Submitted Photo/Meighan McGraw)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Food bank

Battlefords food bank celebrates successful year and volunteers during AGM

Jun 14, 2024 | 1:31 PM

The Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre recently hosted their annual general meeting where the focus was on volunteers and taking stalk of the increased needs of the community.

“All in all, it was a good year,” Executive Director Erin Katerynych said.

“We expect this upcoming year to be busy though, like we’ve seen…it go up,” she added.

The AGM, held on Tuesday, spoke about what the four staff and volunteers saw over the past fiscal year where they noted that monthly, 613 hampers were handed out and 1450 people were served.

According to Katerynych’s speech, roughly over $1.2 million – down from $1.4 million the year before – worth of products were provided to clients and she said it was because of the community they were able to reach as many clients as they did.

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“I do know that last summer we did have to severely cut back our hampers because we were running out of food,” she said.

“Which also speaks to why not as much was given out and then we did have to purchase more because that $1.2 million does not include anything that we bought,” Katerynych added noting that the Christmas hampers, food hampers, Milk for Kids programs make up that number of food given to the community.

As for the donations streaming into the food bank, there is only one time of year they focus on.

“I only come out at Christmas,” she said of the Empty Stocking Fund Campaign.

Katerynych said although they may hang bags on the door asking for more donations or go on air to talk about the needs of the organization, their major and only drive is during the holidays.

“I don’t want to hassle these people,” she said.

“At Christmas time, I’ll hassle you, other than that, if you want to donate, fantastic, if I need help, I’ll ask for it,” the executive director added, noting she knows how often other organizations or businesses get asked for support.

Meanwhile, recognizing the roughly 15 volunteers – two of whom were honoured for their long-time service and – Katerynych said there was about 4,477 hours donated to help their clients, including 1249 families. Now the team are looking to the upcoming year and the executive director said one of the areas they want to put more effort into is their lasagna garden project.

“We want to try and get more clients out there volunteering and learning other…different methods of gardening,” she said in the efforts to get clients to be self-efficient and grow fresh food in the summer.

At the moment, they are working on their clients’ immediate needs.

“With the price of rent and the price of food, and especially the people that are living on the (Saskatchewan Income Support), it’s a struggle,” she said.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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