Cambridge Food Bank in urgent search for new home as lease expiration nears and demand grows

The Cambridge Food Bank is urgently trying to find a new place to call home, and CEO Dianne McLeod is making an appeal for help.

She said in addition to time running out on its current lease, lack of space is making it difficult to adequately serve an increasing number of people.

"Our lease is going to be up in about four years, but more critically is the lack of space that we have here at 54 Ainslie [Street South]," McLeod told CBC News.

"We are really struggling to make sure that we can bring in the amount of food we need that covers the amount of people that we're seeing, there's been a pretty significant increase."

McLeod said the food bank usually serves around 800 people per month in what she said was a "tight" space, and that number has now increased to approximately 2,100 people per month, "which has made it exponentially more difficult."

According to McLeod, moving to another space will also make it possible to do some more of the programming the Cambridge Food Bank is known for.

"We have a lot of people who are interested in our health and wellness programming, and for the most part, we still have to do a lot of it virtually because we simply don't have enough space to welcome everyone into our facility here," she said.

"Our kitchen, for example, we can fit approximately eight people in our commercial kitchen [but] we have upwards of 35 people registered for our cooking classes."

The CEO said the Cambridge Food Bank has been searching for a new home for almost four years. She said the search has taken this long because there are not many properties for sale, but even more, is a lack of adequate funds to secure a property.

Community has always been 'incredibly supportive'

She's appealing to the community for help.

"We are really looking to have folks that are interested in making a major gift to a new building. Our campaign will be … at minimum $5 million, and after renovations are done at maybe closer to $10 million," McLeod said.

"So, we are looking for people who are interested in supporting this project and if they're passionate about things like building resilient youth and helping older adults feel connected and cared for and they care about the environment, we have all kinds of sponsorship and naming opportunities available. 

"I'd encourage folks to come in for a tour so they can learn about what makes us different from other food banks and why we're more than a food bank, and I think they'll get a really great sense of why we need a bigger space," she added.

While the community has always been "incredibly supportive," McLeod is worried about a possible breaking point. 

"There are food banks across Canada who are reducing the amount of food they're giving out, who are having to close for a couple of days because they don't have enough food. That hasn't happened to us yet, but it is in the back of my mind that this may happen to us in the future, and I certainly hope it won't, but it's something that I have to keep in mind," she said.

Carolyn Stewart, the CEO of Feed Ontario, said in December that food banks are starting to see donors become clients and their resources are dwindling.

"The safety net is starting to unravel," she said after Feed Ontario released their annual hunger report.

"Many of our food banks are struggling to keep up with demand and make sure that they have sufficient resources to be able to meet that demand in their community."

The report by Feed Ontario found 40 per cent of all food banks in the province have reduced the amount of food they are able to give to people in need, and half of them have decided to cut services to keep up with resource shortages.

The report found more than a million people accessed services at a food bank in Ontario. That's a 25 per cent increase over 2023 and the eighth consecutive year of growth.