Hunger Awareness Week runs May 5-9, but there are hundreds in this community who are already all too aware of what hunger is.
Sister Eileen Boyle and the 18 other volunteers at the Westlock Food Bank know from first-hand experience that hunger has a huge impact on people in the Westlock area — and more than a third of them are children.
Every year food banks across the country do the March Hunger Count to see how many clients make use of their services and the numbers for this year, the 29th year in Westlock, are disturbingly high.
“We were only open on Tuesdays, and we had 251 people in the month of March, and 92 of these were children — that’s for Westlock and county,” Boyle said.
And demand isn’t limited to just those living in town — of the 251 people who came to the food bank in March, roughly half of them live in the county.
Although the food bank is open every week, Boyle said she has to limit clients to picking up food just once a month.
The food provided is enough to last four or five days — some pasta, skim milk powder, rice, sugar, a pound ground beef or some hot dogs and a few cans of fruits and vegetables and a fresh apple or orange for each child.
“It’s not gourmet food, for sure,” she said.
And yet, she said many would come every week if they could. Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough money or food donations coming in to allow them to.
Of course there are big food drives that pop up regularly, but people get hungry at all times of the year and not just at Christmas or for special events — something that inspired one local group to organize a spring food drive.
Members of Barrhead’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which serves the town of Westlock, collected food from all over town to donate to the Westlock food bank.
Kathryn Quist organized the drive, which is now in its third year, and cited the lack of donations in early spring as one of the main reasons the group wanted to help out.
“There are people in need and we just want to fill that need,” she said.
The food bank relies entirely on donations — including their space in Memorial Hall donated by the Elks, and it’s run entirely by volunteers. In March, the 18 volunteers put in a total of about 200 hours to meet the demand.
Boyle offered some speculation as to the precise reason that demand is so high, citing the growing number of people working part-time jobs without benefits.
“Some people have two jobs of four hours only, with no benefits,” she said.
Not only are some folks struggling with work, Boyle said she knows of a couple families who are doubling up on residence — sharing a home between two families as a way to try to make ends meet.
“It’s unbelievable, and when I talk to the sisters in Edmonton — a lot of them work at the food banks — it’s the same story everywhere,” she said. “People are really struggling.”
One of the end results of that struggle is that even in cases where people get enough to fill their bellies, they’re not always getting the healthiest food available.
“Few people buy fruits and vegetables — that’s what we want to feed the kids — but it’s just too expensive,” she said. “When you go into the store with $50, you only get a little bag of food.”
Anyone interested in helping the food bank with donations is encourage to give money, or protein items such as beans and canned tuna.
