Surrey Food Bank’s shelves empty, unsure it can help families ahead of return to school

With school just a couple of weeks away, the Surrey Food Bank is making an urgent plea for help. It says its shelves are bare and admits it’s not in a position to help families prepare for the fall.

“We don’t have enough food,” explained executive director Kim Savage. “Summers are typically very hard on food banks. There’s a lot of engagement with the community in the winter and in the spring and then of course in the fall when everyone gets back into their routines, but in the summer, people are off on vacation … and it means they’re not thinking about food banks.”

Savage can’t say for certain if the ongoing cost of living crisis and the high cost of groceries are also contributing factors in the downturn in donations.

“We’ve actually had to start purchasing food to make sure that we can meet the need that we’re facing in the community,” she told 1130 NewsRadio.

The food bank has spent roughly $300,000 so far in 2024 topping up the shelves. Savage points out that the food bank has already used all of its “reserve budget” for purchasing food with a focus on staples like milk, eggs, rice, and protein.

Savage says year-over-year demand is up while donations are down.

“Last year, we were averaging somewhere between 16,000 and 18,000 people per month. Now that number is creeping up to more like 20,000 to 22,000 people per month and that’s just directly related to people facing a lot of economic challenges,” she explained.

“We work with, typically, fairly low-income families and those families are spending, on average, between 70 and 80 per cent of their income just on rent and housing, so it doesn’t leave a lot left for anything else.”

Families that visit the food bank often consist of a married couple with two or three children, or a single parent with a couple of children.

“Obviously, as the Surrey Food Bank, we have a lot of newcomers and asylum seekers also accessing our services, so there’s a lot of demand on what we’re doing right now.”

Savage says being able to cater to different ethnic backgrounds is also posing some challenges.



“Not everyone wants spaghetti and tomato sauce. Sometimes there’s beans, or rice or lentils and that sort of thing. Also, varying the protein source. Not everyone can have ground beef, so trying halal or kosher or vegetarian options.”

As people gear up for back to school, Savage is hoping people are mindful of the items they’re dropping off.

She suggests it’s best to drop off items like individual cheese portions, yogurt packs, or instant oatmeal, as opposed to things that are less nutritious like chocolate-covered granola bars, breakfast pastries, or sugary cereals.

In the 2023 provincial budget, the B.C. government confirmed an investment of $214 million over three years into school food programs — the largest investment of its kind in all of Canada, but some advocates said it still wasn’t enough and pushed for a cohesive national program.

This spring, the federal government confirmed details of a national school food program with a goal of feeding 400,000 kids every year. Ottawa also announced plans to spend $1 billion over the next five years on the program.

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