Cambridge Food Bank looking for a larger space to combat rise in food insecurity

The Cambridge Food Bank first opened in Galt in 2001 and distributed about 200,000 pounds of food, now they serve over a million pounds of food out of the same location. It’s one of the main reasons they are looking for a larger facility.

“Since COVID we have been having a rapid increase year over year of people in need. So, I suspect in 2024 it will be much more over a million pounds,” said Dianne McLeod, executive director for the Cambridge Food Bank.

They can’t stay at their current location anymore at 54 Ainslie St S. because their lease with the City of Cambridge ends in about six years.

McLeod said they aren’t being forced out by the city but the area they are located in is slated for redevelopment.

They currently serve Hespeler, Galt, Preston, and North Dumfries through their main location with 2 churches helping them to distribute food.

The Cambridge Food Bank needs a location closer to 40,000 square feet that is also close to public transportation, said McLeod.

“If I had a magic wand it be right in the centre of Cambridge so that people from Preston and Hespeler can get there.”

Multiple agencies come to them to get food throughout the year. They provide after-school snacks to community centres or fresh fruit to summer camps. They also provide food for shelter overflow and other community organizations.

“Space is the biggest issue, the most pressing issue,” added McLeod.

“24 boxes, that’s all the space we have for peanut butter. There are maybe 20 jars in a box, and we go through 100-150 jars a day.”

Currently, the Cambridge Food Bank has a very narrow driveway for trucks to drop off food. McLeod said if they have a large donation, they might have to make three or four trips to get all the food, which then goes through a sorting process before it’s given out to people in the community.

“We definitely need more volunteers. We have about 300 volunteers.”

Along with volunteers the food bank in Cambridge has about 17 staff.

McLeod said they need a larger facility so they can hire more staff and more drivers. They have a kitchen currently where they make preserves out of older produce, which they are hoping to double in size with a new location.

They also want more space so they can host in-person workshops instead of just hosting them online. McLeod said they have a youth worker currently working with families and kids.

“If we can, which is not always possible, because of the economic climate we’re in, but hopefully get kids on the right path that they may not need us when they’re adults,” said McLeod.

“We could just do more work for families if we had the space.”

The food bank is seeing more families with children and more young adults who live on their own coming in than usual.

 “I keep thinking like each month, ok we’re not going to get any busier, we’re not going to get any busier but unfortunately we keep getting busier,” said McLeod. “There’s new people who have never been to a food bank before that are visiting us every single day.”

Over 3,800 people who visited the Cambridge Food Bank last year were first-time visitors.

They also saw an increase in visitors of almost 39 per cent from 2022. Last year they served over 10,000 people a total of 43,000 times. Close to 34 per cent of those visitors were kids.

“I thought well once COVID is over it will get better, but it hasn’t gotten better and for a variety of reasons. I’ve talked to some people about it and the biggest issue people tell me is their housing costs. They’re spending the majority of their income, if not all of their income, on housing costs. So they are relying on us for all of their food essentially,” said McLeod.

As part of the region’s 2024 budget, the Cambridge Food Bank received more funding, alongside the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. McLeod said that money will largely go towards buying more non-perishable food, as they have noticed a decline in donations.