The Moose Jaw & District Food Bank has put out a request for some specific donations, namely some items that are a staple on the Food Bank’s shelves.
In its Facebook post, it asked for the community to consider donating Kraft Dinner, Chunky soup, boxed cereal, and mushroom soup.
Running out of items such as these is fairly uncommon for the Food Bank, as staple items like Kraft Dinner and canned soups are usually supplied quite well on their shelves during this time of year.
Operations manager Terri Smith says the Food Bank has seen a 20-per-cent increase in clients using their services in the last two years and volunteers are putting together around 30 to 40 extra food hampers each month.
“We've had an increase of clients coming in, and we're actually helping more clients a little bit more often,” said Smith. “Normally, we can gauge how much we're going to use based on the year before but this year we can't seem to keep up.”
Because of this influx, the Food Bank is seeing items disappear more quickly. Even after rationing the number of items going into the hampers, Smith is so low on Kraft Dinner that it likely won't last more than a few days.
The Food Bank usually feeds around 700 to 800 people in the community each month, although this year they’re estimating that number is actually closer to 900 people each month. All of the food they provide relies entirely upon donations from the community.
Donations of all types of food are always welcome, as well as non-perishable products like soap, shampoo, laundry detergent and so on. Monetary donations are also extremely helpful to the Food Bank, as that is used to buy perishable foods like meat, dairy, and eggs.
For those looking to lend a hand and provide any of these needed items, the Food Bank is open for donations from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday to Friday, at their location at 305 Fairford St. W. They also have donation bins located at Co-op Marketplace, Superstore, and Safeway for easy drop-off donation.
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