Food bank donations need to fill shelves here

On Wednesday, some tractors will roll through this end of the Valley on their way to Halifax for World Food Day Oct. 16. The tour, called Drive Away Hunger, will stop at Scotian Gold and Acadia University. The goal of the project is to collect over 100,000 pounds of food for Feed Nova Scotia.

We hear food bank shelves are pretty bare these days. Surely this is ridiculous.

The daily paper ran a photo of an empty warehouse in Bedford and just recently the Wolfville and Area Food Bank made an appeal for contributions. Last week I heard from a food bank volunteer who feels torn because the tractor tour will take food out of our community. It’s collected here, yes, but goes to Halifax and is dispensed by Feed Nova Scotia.

Having heard the same complaint when K-Rock held a food drive back in August, I thought I better call Dianne Swinemar, who runs Feed Nova Scotia, and get her take on the situation.

Mentioning this concern, she responded, "let's hope people in Ontario don't say that. In the broadest sense we give everybody a fair share to ensure there are no rich and poor food banks. Our sole purpose is to get food to the food banks."

Then I said I had heard that produce from the Valley was being trucked into the central warehouse and coming back in less than prime condition. "It comes from Sobey’s and Cape Breton too," Swinemar said. "It's in one day and out the next day. Perishable produce doesn't hang around."

Swinemar agreed that sometimes food banks receive donations of bottled water and treats like Halloween candy. Feed Nova Scotia redistributes those contributions, but they are not counted in the 'real food weight' that each food bank receives proportionately.

"We go by the Canada Food Guide and if we get extras, we share it," she said. The bottom line for this advocate is that Feed Nova Scotia is doing the best it can. Regarding proportional redistribution, Swinemar says, "I can't apologize for doing what we've been asked to do."

‘Less stuff on our shelves’

After speaking with Swinemar I gave Lamont Larkin of Fundy Food Bank a call to find out how the New Minas-based volunteers are doing. He laments the fact that poverty has had to become so industrialized. A long-time worker, Lamont acknowledged when there are these provincial food drives "we have less stuff on our shelves. It's a quandary and people are sometimes confused about where they are giving to."

He described getting up to speak at his church about the empty shelves and a member of the congregation was surprised that her $100 donation this summer had gone to Bedford. "People think they are giving directly to the local food banks."

Larkin fears that given the state of the economy nationally, charitable donations from both individuals and corporations are going to go down as the needs grows.

"We always need bread and meat for school lunches so we're looking forward to the Horton/Central Kings food drive. It's always fantastic."

But this local drive doesn't happen until December. Meanwhile the Fundy Food Bank has the added job of relocating from its current age-old basement setting. Lamont told me they are seriously looking at moving to the grounds of St. Joseph's Church in Kentville. "We have an agreement in principle. Father Craig and the Bishop are behind it."

That will mean building a small warehouse, but Larkin is confident local contractors will help out, as they did when the food bank in Kingston had a construction project. "It cost them about $5,000," he said.

We've had a food bank for almost 20 years locally, so I guess purpose-built facilities are now necessary. We have come to accept that volunteer-driven infrastructure like food banks provide for the poor rather than our tax dollars. Income distribution or guaranteed annual incomes make more sense to me.

In a land where so many live in plenty and we consume increasing amounts of imported food, none of this adds up when local fruit rots under the trees and in the fields, farmers go broke and people remain hungry.