Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre executive director Erin Katerynych shown at the food bank in North Battleford Wednesday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Increased demand

Food Bank in need of donations

Mar 30, 2022 | 11:52 AM

The local food bank is in need of more donations of
non-perishable food items.

Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre executive director Erin Katerynych said many of the shelves are nearly bare, with few donations coming in and a high demand for food in the community.

“Our shelves are very empty right now,” she told battlefordsNOW. “We are running out of non-perishable food. We’ve been very busy.”

In the month of March alone, the food bank helped over 1,700 people accessing the service.

Katerynych said the number of people the food bank served in March was the highest the non-profit has seen in the past year.

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“Our numbers have definitely grown. I don’t expect them to do anything else but grow more, with the [high] price of gas and the price of food,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of people come through our doors who haven’t been here in a long time.”

This is often a slower time of the year for donations to the food bank, which adds to the challenge.

“The food that we collect at Christmas time usually lasts us until around May, and we have already run out this year,” Katerynych added.

The food bank made the hampers a little bigger this past Christmas with so many families struggling, so people had more food to take home.

Katerynych said many people also made donations during the Christmas holidays, which helped. But the food bank has seen fewer donations come in ever since.

“It really reflects what we have in our freezers and what we have on our shelves,” Katerynych said.

The food bank is now asking people to make a donation of
non-perishable food if they are able to help fill the need. In particular, some of the items especially needed include pasta, pasta sauce, canned soups, stews, rice, peanut butter, jam, and breakfast cereals.

“Any kind of donation helps,” Katerynych said. “We’re running out of everything.”

The food bank also gives families non-food items, such as cleaning supplies and hygiene products. So these types of donations are also appreciated.

Katerynych also mentioned the food bank puts out fresh bread for people in need to pick up Mondays to Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

“We’re seeing approximately 40 people per day coming in for just bread,” she said.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow