ANTIGONISH – The Antigonish Community Food Bank is seeing a significant rise in demand this winter, resulting in a record-breaking day of service last week.
Staff say the organization has experienced a steady increase in the number of households seeking support over the past year, with this past Christmas marking the busiest holiday season in its 32-year history.
Now, with demand continuing to climb, the food bank is monitoring closely to see what the months ahead may bring.
“Last week, we had our highest number of people that we served in one day, which was 66 households, and we had never had that number before,” said communications coordinator Megan Samson. “When we are open for a two-hour period, we can barely serve 60 families, so we were scrambling to put boxes together.”
The increase is part of a broader trend.
“We have definitely seen a spike year-over-year in terms of the volume and the demand,” Samson said. “This past Christmas, we served almost 350 clients during a two-week period with our Christmas hampers. That was historically our highest number … since we’ve been open for 32 years here that the food bank has been serving the community.”
While donations peaked over the holiday season, traditionally the busiest time for giving, the organization is watching carefully to see how funding and food supplies hold up as demand grows.
“The donations that we get around Christmas time, that’s our highest peak when people donate, because Christmas is a high demand, people also want to get their tax receipts in by the end of the year,” Samson said. “We did receive a pretty decent amount of donations, and we received enough to cover our costs for the year.”
However, she noted that food banks nationally are anticipating another increase in demand.
“We are not necessarily concerned, but we are anticipating that the demand is going to increase again this year,” she said. “In terms of the demand, the amount of volunteers we have, and also the funding, we can’t keep doubling our numbers, so to speak.”
Even a moderate increase could present challenges.
“Even another 20 or 30 per cent would probably be a bit of a crunch for us right now,” Samson said. “That’s where there is some concern with food and funding, but we’re not at that breaking point at this point.”
The food bank operates largely with volunteer support.
“We’re mostly run by volunteers,” Samson said. “We only have three part-time staff here, and I’m one of those positions. We have 25 volunteers that come in four days a week to help us run this operation, and we want to make sure that our volunteers don’t burn out.”
Last week, the food bank also received a generous donation from EverWind Fuels, as well as one from the Bonvie-MacDonald Rinks to Links Classic earlier in the month.
As for what’s driving the rising demand, Samson pointed to ongoing economic pressures.
“I believe there is an impact of COVID. A lot of people lost their jobs and the cost of everything has gone up. Gas, housing, everything increased … and salaries have not.”
The food bank is also seeing a shift in who is seeking assistance.
“We see people here that are working full time,” Samson said. “People who are on income assistance or homeless – we have people that have dual income families working with children just trying to make ends meet.”
For now, staff are keeping a close eye on the numbers.
“We don’t know if that’s an indicator of what the rest of the year is going to be, but we are keeping a close eye on the significant increases that we’re seeing,” Samson said.
