The Inn of the Good Shepherd is now limiting the number of households it serves daily due to a drop in donations.
The Inn posted to social media Tuesday, that to keep serving the community in a meaningful and sustainable way, it will be limiting the food bank to 40 households per day.
"It's been well recorded and established that our food donations have been falling on a month-to-month basis, and it's been happening for maybe the past two months or so, probably since about March time, so we decided to cap our numbers at 40 per day," said Inn Executive Director Jack Christine. "It is not gradually improving regarding people's food security, and my own personal view is, I can't see an end in sight."
Christine said limiting the food bank ensures that the 40 households are able to get a well rounded amount of food and that nobody is left with just scraps at the end of the day
"What was happening previous is that people were coming in later on, towards when the food bank was closing, and there wasn't much on the shelves, because the food bank had been open, and obviously people had been through and been allocated most of the stuff, so this is to ensure that when people come in, that they're going to get a full complement of food to take away with them,"
The Inn serves about 2,200 people a month through the food bank and nearly 700 meals a day through its soup kitchen.
"It's mostly due to the fall in food donations, even though we've been doing our normal food drives and stuff, we just seem to have a fall in the food donations from the public," said Christine. "Everybody's making difficult decisions, and that's due to the increasing cost of living. People are having to decide to put food on their own table before thinking about donating to other people. Everybody's struggling at the moment, so people are making difficult decisions, and one of the things that tends to follow first is donations to charity, which is completely understandable."
The food bank numbers are handed out daily beginning at 8:30 a.m. on a first come first serve basis.
If you are in a position to help, donations of food, funds, or volunteer time are encouraged.
