Cornwall food bank getting half the clients it expected
'The feedback we have been getting from the clients that have used it has been great'
A food bank in Cornwall, P.E.I., isn't getting as many users as expected.
The service was launched in 2018 as a pilot project, and it's now helping provide food to about eight to 10 clients monthly.
"We were probably hoping to be, you know, 20 to 25 households using the service," said Mike MacDonald, executive director of the Upper Room Food Bank.
He said the service was launched with the help of the Cornwall Lions Club.
Every Thursday morning, boxes of food are taken from Charlottetown for distribution in Cornwall. Clients in the area call ahead the night before so organizers know what the need is.
"The feedback we have been getting from the clients that have used it has been great," MacDonald said.
He said those clients are why he wants it to continue.
"Every month we hear the same thing from those people using it … that it makes it so much easier for them," MacDonald said.
Creating awareness
He said there are people from the Cornwall area that drive into Charlottetown to use the food bank there — and that is their choice, but MacDonald said he wants to make people aware the service is also available in Cornwall.
"We do want to ensure that people know as well, whatever location you come to you are getting the exact same food," MacDonald said.
"We make sure that we bring out perishable products and there's meat and fruit and vegetable."
MacDonald thinks as word spreads about the Cornwall food bank, the number of people using the service will grow.
"We encourage them to go to Cornwall but we're not going to tell people they can't use the food bank here in Charlottetown," MacDonald said.
The food bank is set up at the Cornwall Lions Club inside the Cornwall Civic Centre.
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With files from Angela Walker