NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. — As Christmas dinners are prepared and community programs administered, the most wonderful time of the year is also the busiest time of the year at the North Sydney Community Food Bank .
“Last year, we did 282 dinners. This year, it is probably going to be closer to 300,” said Lawrence Shebib, the food bank co-ordinator.
“We have 235 registered right now. We expect that this week we will be registering more. There’s no deadline. If somebody comes us the day we are open, we try to help them.”
That dinner includes choice of turkey, ham or chicken and everything else a family would need to put a festive meal on their table at Christmas.
Adding to those meal preparation activities is the role the food bank takes on in the form of distribution of gift cards through its association with the annual Christmas Daddies fundraiser.
A relationship with the Cape Breton Family Resource Centre also allows Northside families to register for the adopt-a-family program the resource centre runs out of Sydney.
Though busy, Shebib said tremendous community support from local service clubs and churches helps to lighten the load.
Individuals are also generous with cash donations, he noted.
“When somebody gives us cash … we usually double the value,” he said. “That $20 someone just gave me I can make $40 or $50 out of that because we buy everything on sale and the bigger stores let us buy big quantities of it. It’s a real savings. Then we can buy what we need.”
In terms of need at this time of year, the food bank requires Carnation milk, instant stuffing and cranberry sauce. They are also running low on tomato products.
Diapers, formula and other baby products are also in demand at this time of year.
North Sydney Community Food Bank
- Opened: September 1994
- Location: 10 Station Street, North Sydney
- Mission: To serve the hunger needs of the people of North Sydney, Georges River and Letches Creek and surrounding areas.
On a month-to-month basis the food bank offers assistance to 172 families. There’s up to nine people in some of those families, meaning the number of people they see could top 400 each month.
“It’s not the same people all the time. About 20 per cent of them are coming every month but some of them it depends on the time of year and what their financial situation is like.”
At Christmas, he said, they will see more as people with multiple added expenses.
In recent months, the food bank has stopped offering things like pop and potato chips, in favour of apples and other healthier alternatives.
Another example has seen plain oatmeal replace the instant variety because it contains much less sugar and can be used for both cereal and baking.
“We don’t want to be making people sick. We are very much aware of the salt content and especially in canned stuff. The stores here, I can’t say enough good about them, really. Shoppers Drug Mart, Sobeys, SuperValue and Walmart all help us when things are on sale. If there’s items with low salt and low sugar content, where we can we make those changes because they have an impact.”
The Northside Community Health Board has also provided grants to the food bank over the last number of years to assist with healthier eating goals.
That has meant, among other things, dieticians and nutritionists at the food bank to offer advice and cooking tips to clients.
“We don’t have a kitchen here but we do have a slow cooker and crock pot and those kinds of things and they can do a recipe for healthier items,” he said.
“What they will do is come and we get a recipe together and they make copies of it for the members that come. They get a sample of the food and a copy of the recipe along with all the ingredients they need to make it.”
A community kitchen in a bigger space would help food bank officials to better meet these healthy eating goals, he said.
“We are trying to find a bigger space because we really can’t do what we want to do here anymore,” he said. “We have just outgrown it.”
RELATED:
