Charlottetown food bank seeing demand surge ahead of Thanksgiving

The Upper Room Hospitality Ministry is experiencing an increase in demand heading into Thanksgiving weekend.

The Charlottetown food bank and soup kitchen operator says it's been serving a lot more people than usual in recent weeks.

"Certainly September was quite busy for us and October has really started off with a bang," executive director Mike MacDonald said. 

"We're expecting more and more people in both the food bank and soup kitchen and, you know, certainly hoping that we can help them as much as possible with their holiday dinners."

Thanksgiving dinner on Monday

MacDonald said they've served 588 families last month when typically they serve around 540. The soup kitchen served around 3,700 meals in September.

He said he expects to give out more fresh produce than usual, as more people donate to the food bank ahead of the holiday. 

"Unfortunately, we don't have turkeys. But we will have chicken," MacDonald said.

However, the soup kitchen will provide a full Thanksgiving dinner on Monday at 12 p.m.

"We'll have kind of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the turkey and all the trimmings," MacDonald said. "And, of course, there will be a couple options, the option to dine in or to take out. 

"The difference this year, I guess, in comparison to many others, is that we do have limited seating and we'll be asking people to kind of eat and move along so we can sit more people."

Vaccination proof won't be required at the dinner, or at the food bank, as they're considered essential services.