Community keeps food bank viable

WILLIAMSBURG – Dundas County Food Bank representatives couldn’t say enough about this community and how pivotal a role it played in turning a bad year into a good year for the Dundas County Food Bank.

Monday evening the Dundas County Food Bank (DCFB) held its annual general meeting at the J.W. MacIntosh Seniors’ Support Centre in Williamsburg.

The community’s support in a time of need for the organization which operates locations in Morrisburg and Winchester was evident in every report presented.

In 2009 DCFB saw a 21 percent increase in family visits, which represents a 27 percent increase in the number of people receiving a five day supply of food. The number of people who needed to return for a second ‘emergency’ one day supply of food in a month was up 44 percent.

“2009 was a year of downs and ups for the food bank,” said Brenda Millard, DCFB chair. “As the economy plummeted and the need for food skyrocketed, the food on our shelves quickly went down, as the client number went up.”

“By mid September we had used up our yearly budget for food and we were looking at ways to cut our spending to add money to food supplies,” reported Millard.

Within days of the situation being headlined on the Oct., 14 front page of The Leader individuals and groups began to respond with support.

“Substantial donations of food and funds from individuals, service clubs, church groups, North and South Dundas Ministerials, businesses, farms, stores in the area, school children and seniors organizations began to pour in to both our food bank locations,” said Millard. “They moved quickly to turn our downwards upwardly, and to turn our financial situation into the black.”

“Support in our community has been beyond that of any other year.”

The budget, presented by treasurer Dave King showed that going in to 2009, the board estimated that they would receive about $60,000 worth of donations from individuals, church groups, businesses and service clubs. Instead, they actually received over $105,000 from the aforementioned groups in 2009. “A huge percentage of that number was received after September,” said King. “It is tremendous how much support we received.”

In 2009, 1,726 food boxes were distributed among 5,474 people across Dundas County.

“The number of people that came through the door of the food bank was almost mind boggling,” said Laura Harbers, food and client coordinator for the Morrisburg location of the DCFB.

“We spent our food budget early, but to see how the community stepped forward to help us was humbling,” she added. “We would have been in real trouble if the community hadn’t come forward and took care of us.”

“We spent close to $45,000 on food, but gave out approximately $153,000 worth of food,” reported Judy Hilson, food and client coordinator at DCFB Winchester location, who compiles the statics reports. “About one third of the food is purchased, the rest is donated,” she said.

“We have been blessed with the ongoing support of the community in the form of food drives and individual food and financial donations that enabled us to continue to help those in need,” reported Hilson. “We would not survive without donated food.”

When the DCFB found that their food budget was depleting too quickly the board asked the food coordinators Hilson and Harbers to take a close look at the contents of the food boxes to see if they could find some savings.

“We have always been careful about what goes into the boxes,” said Hilson. She reported that they were able to make some cost cutting changes to the boxes. “We decreased a few things that we thought wouldn’t hurt a family,” said Hilson, explaining that instead of getting two cups of a bulk ingredient they may instead get one cup.

The cost cutting measures represent a savings of about $2 per person.

“We have received no complaints from clients saying that the boxes were any less helpful,” said Hilson.