The Community Connections Food Bank says it is seeing an increasing number of people accessing its services.
“We are experiencing a huge demand at the food bank – more clients in total, and those clients are visiting more often. Additionally, donations have decreased while our food costs are also increasing. More folks need help with food, and less folks have extra to donate,” Melissa Hemphill, co-director of Community Outreach and Development at Community Connections told Revelstoke Mountaineer via email to media. “It’s not a great financial situation and any help that community groups or individuals can give is very appreciated at this time (and always).”
In B.C., food banks do not receive core funding, and often rely on public donations and small grants to provide individuals and families with nutritious foods.
Hemphill’s appeal for donations comes on the heels of a recently released BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) report on food costs across the province. The Food Costing in BC 2022 report, released in May 2023, assessed the affordability of healthy eating for individuals and families across all four regional health authorities. The report revealed the provincial average between May 2022 and June 2022 was $1,263 for a family of four (defined as “consisting of a male adult, a female adult, male child, and female child”). The average cost to feed a family of four in the Interior Health Region was $1,264.
“The purpose of the Food Costing in B.C. 2022 report is to highlight that inadequate incomes are the root cause of household food insecurity,” Linda Boyd, Public Health Dietician with Interior Health wrote in an email. The report, which reviewed five different household compositions and income scenarios, revealed many people and households living on low incomes – particularly those on income or disability assistance – cannot afford a nutritious diet after paying rent.
To learn more about how you can support the food bank in Revelstoke visit community-connections.ca/get-involved.
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