Christmas season is the busiest time of the year for the local food bank. Not only are there the usual clients who need the services of the food bank, there is also the Christmas Hamper program, which … well, it’s anyone’s guess how busy it will be this year, says Tumbler Ridge Food Bank Coordinator Ronke Solomon.
“Sometimes I say, ‘Oh, I’m only going to have 30,’ and then there’s 60. Right now, I can’t even I guess how many there will need to be this year. The forms are still coming in.” She rummages on her desk, to pull out a folder, full of papers. I have a stack already, and I still have more coming. I could wake up on December 21 and see that I have to do 60. So I can’t really tell what we’re going to have.”
Solomon, who has been coordinating the food bank for the last five years, says that this year has been a mixed bag for the food bank. “We did quite well with the money aspect of the food drive, but with the food itself? We didn’t do so good. It’s the worst I’ve seen in five years that I’ve been here, thought it was still okay. It was still very generous but just comparing with the past years, it wasn’t as good. Even the height of Covid was a lot better than what we did this year. We did better in terms of cash—of people give money—but right now we’re still looking for breakfast stuff for Christmas hamper.”
Solomon says they usually provide breakfast items in the hampers. “We still need pancake mix. We need a syrup. For the rest, cash is better because I’m going to be buying the eggs and bacon and sausages, because I can get discounts on those. We also need to buy turkeys and veggies and all of that for the Christmas hamper, too.”
In the past, she says, people would give more in terms of food. “These days, people are giving us money so we can buy what we actually need for the meals. So, cash donations really help at this time of the year, while the food we get through the Mayor’s Food Drive and other donations helps us throughout the rest of the year.”
And it’s been a busy year for the food bank. Solomon says she’s seen a spike in usage over the last 18 months to two years because of Covid. “We’ve seen some people that you would never believe would need help coming to the food bank because, you know, they lost their job or maybe some people just lost hours and are struggling because of that. I’ve had people who only needed help maybe just once or twice and I didn’t have to put them in my system as a regular client because they just needed help for that month or two.”
For the last few months, though, it’s been more up than down. “I would say it’s been up about 20 percent this year,” she says.
Still, Solomon says she’s not worried for the upcoming year, as the people in this community are very generous, as are the corporations who will donate money regularly.
Indeed, one of the things the food bank needs over Christmas is people to donate their time. “I always need people to help wrap the gifts because we get gifts for the kids. I usually need help with wrapping and sorting.”
And, she says with a laugh, she needs help picking out what gifts to give to what kids. “You have to think like a little boy to figure out what they might want, and I don’t always know what a four-year-old boy will need or will like. I always need help picking out the right gifts. And I don’t want it to be just my idea. I need five or six people who can be like ‘no no, no, don’t give this gift, give that one,’ so we can get the right gift to the kids. And then, of course, we need to wrap them. If anybody wants to help, they are welcome to do so.”
While the shelves are well stocked right now, Solomon says that is no guarantee. “What we get in terms of food and cash donations is excellent. And we’re in a very good shape. But you know, we always take donations because you never know what will happen. You wake up tomorrow and the mines are down and there are a lot of people who need help. But as a rule, if we get enough donations to cover the Christmas hampers, we’re usually in a good place for the rest of the year.”
While there are a few major corporate givers—like the Community Forest and Meikle and Fresh Mart and the Dollar Store—most of the giving comes from the community.
With Covid happening, the food bank is working on being able to do home deliveries, which is another place they are looking for people to contribute. “I want to do as much delivery as possible. Hopefully we’ll get enough people to do deliveries, because it’s easier than getting everybody to come in here. We can just leave it at people’s doors. It’s safer for everybody.”
One major change the food bank has instituted recently is a points system. Rather than giving clients the exact same thing each month, individuals get 50 points, plus 25 extra points for each dependant. A family of four would get 125 points per month. These points can then be used to “buy” items from the food bank. Each item costs various points. A can of soup costs one point, while a family sized jar of peanut butter is five. “People were saying like, ‘Oh, I have a bottle of ketchup. I don’t use ketchup that often. I only use one bottle of ketchup over three months, but I get ketchup every month.’ If they can’t use the item, it’s a waste. I did research. I went to the Dawson Creek Food Bank, to the Fort St. John Food Bank to see how they did it. And from there, we came up with the point system.”
Other values include: a box of Kraft Dinner is 1.5 point. 900g of pasta is 1 point, while a big bag of toilet paper costs about 12 points
“Eggs milk meat cheese veggies margarine are essential, so cost no points,” says Solomon.
This means that there is less waste, people get what they want, and Solomon knows what items are in demand so she can restock the shelves when they are low.
If you’d like to volunteer with or donate to the food bank, call Ronke at 250-242-7404.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
