Food banks' role in peninsula crisis 'not done yet'

The four food banks in the Acadian Peninsula are "trying to get back to the regular" after January's ice storm and resulting widespread, long-running power outages, according to a longtime food security worker in the area.

"It was different for every food bank, but the staff, I think, right now is trying to get back on their feet," said Leo-Paul Pinet, the director of the Acadian Peninsula Volunteer Centre on Tuesday afternoon during a visit to the Neguac food bank.

"I think that we have a second wave coming up, which will be huge."

The "second wave" refers to the last weeks of February, when residents of the peninsula will receive cheques for unemployment insurance and pensions. 

Pinet believes much of that assistance will go toward paying off emergency expenditures incurred during the power outages, including the purchase of generators, gasoline, and food to replace what was lost.

Already, residents are asking food banks for additional assistance.

"We don't have credit cards for gas so we have to deal with people coming to the door asking for that," Pinet said.

Food box service finishes

Though the area's food banks are under increased pressure, the additional food box service has been halted in Neguac, Tracadie and Lamèque.

I hope we are not in a process that will jeopardize the survival of food banks in the peninsula.- Leo-Paul Pinet, Acadian Peninsula Volunteer Centre

"We got electricity back the earliest," said Roger St-Pierre of Tracadie's Au Rayon D'Espoir. 

The food bank was one of the first to offer boxes filled with food and supplies, customized to people's needs. The service was provided for almost two weeks and has been completed.

"We don't have many more than our regulars, but the new people who can't afford to go to the store, we don't throw them out," said St–Pierre.

Only Caraquet, without power for 11 days, will continue its food box program until Thursday.

'It's the psychological aspect'

The peninsula's food security needs are under control, but Leo-Paul Pinet points to a longer-lasting effect of the power outages and ice storm crisis.

"It's the psychological aspect of it," he said. "Already we have those working at food banks who are the front line. People may come to your food bank and there's a lot of venting.

"The staff have to deal with individuals who have to share what they went through, and I don't think we have the tools at food banks to deal with that."

Pinet was satisfied with the response to the crisis but said there was much to learn from the way food banks responded.

"It was managed in an average way," he said.

"But there's a lot of citizens, a lot of families in the peninsula for whom it was a crisis, a major crisis for them, and they have to regroup and get back on their feet. They have to rebuild their confidence as well in the system."

There was an outpouring of support from across New Brunswick. Donations were made to food banks in the peninsula from dozens of other municipalities.

The provincial government contributed $200,000 to local food banks to aid in the relief effort.

Pinet isn't satisfied the sum will be enough.

On Saturday, he tallied the Caraquet food bank's extra expenditures, which came to $39,000 in groceries.

"In Neguac right now, they're nearly $40,000," he said. Pinet estimated costs for the Tracadie and Lamèque food banks would come to about $100,000 altogether.

"I hope we are not in a process that will jeopardize the survival of food banks in the peninsula because already the food banks were in the red," Pinet said.

"So it's not done yet."