The Cambridge Food Bank has had the busiest start to the year than ever and is seeing more people access the food bank then anytime in the history of the organization.
With this many people coming to the food bank, staff and volunteers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep food on the shelves.
"The food is going out as fast as it comes in," said executive director of the food bank Dianne McLeod. "With inflation and rising costs of living, people need help now more than ever."
Running out of staple foods that they always have in stock like dry pasta, canned tomatoes, canned meat and fish, the food bank is starting to feel the stress of the unprecedented requests for service.
Their mobile food market has also seen a large jump in sales with February topping the list for the busiest month ever.
McLeod attributes the rise in popularity of the mobile market to the price of the food being lower than market cost. The truck is also available to anyone who needs it, giving an opportunity to people from all walks of life.
With the demand of the food bank skyrocketing, they are set to make one of the largest purchases of food items worth $50,000. This will go replenishing some of their stock, but McLeod worries this won't last long and the food will go out as fast as they can put it on the shelves.
"The need is just so incredible right now, it's actually really hard to believe how busy we are," said McLeod.
The pressure of the high demand felt by the Cambridge Food Bank is also being seen across the country.
A survey of nearly 3,000 Canadian charities found that more than half couldn’t meet the demand, while nearly a third had reported a significant decrease in revenue.
In the just released Giving Report, done by CanadaHelps, a Canadian charitable organization, severe challenges are plaguing the charitable sector, including inflation, growth in demand and revenue shortfalls.
The food bank is always looking for donations such as non-perishable food items and anything to make sandwiches for school students.
"Peanut butter and jelly are always a good choice, we actually don't have either of those things in the building right now, so were are kinda in desperate need of it," noted McLeod.
There are going to be many events coming to Cambridge this spring like stuff-a-van, 50/50 raffles and others will be announced in the coming weeks.
"We just want people to know that we are always here and really want to help everyone we can," McLeod said.
