Cape Breton youth centre sees huge increase in food demand

A Cape Breton youth centre is seeing a surge in young people who need food.

Undercurrent Youth Centre in Glace Bay normally offers a brunch program in the summer months. Volunteers typically provide around 200 meals a week for young people, many of whom normally get meals through school breakfast and lunch programs.

That number has jumped to 1,000 meals a week this year. David Sawler, executive director of Undercurrent Youth Centre, believes that's the result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The child poverty rate was 40 percent before COVID so I think that number has obviously gone up," said Sawler. "I don't know if we'll even understand for a year or two how bad things have shifted, but obviously there's some people saying there's a much bigger need."

Stepping up to meet demand

When schools shut down due to the pandemic, there were several initiatives started to help feed students, including a provincial pilot project that saw businesses deliver meals to identified students in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

But as programs that were tied to the end of the school year wrap up, Sawler said Undercurrent's demand has continued to surge.

"The amount of food we're giving out, it's 10 times what we gave out last year."

Undercurrent is serving multiple communities, including New Waterford. Their Glace Bay centre is normally a place for youth to gather, take part in programming like skateboarding and games. The gym is now a production centre where students can come in three times a week to pick from an array of food, snacks and drinks. 

Grants and more grants

Dozens of volunteers work in shifts to put together the two-day lunch bags. They are also providing around 100 families with hampers of food for the week and take-home kits so that families can make pizza or do a craft together. 

In all, the centre is spending around $4,000 a week on groceries. Funding for the groceries has come from federal grants and donations from community organizations. 

"We've basically just become a grant-writing organization," said Sawler, adding they've lost a lot of their normal revenue, particularly the rent they collect from people renting spaces in the centre itself.

Cape Breton has the highest child poverty rates in the province. Advocates recently voiced their concerns around food insecurity for children during the pandemic. 

Sawler fears the worst is yet to come as people's expenses increase in the winter and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit runs out. 

"We think the need is going to get bigger and we're not going to be able to meet the need then, that's our biggest fear."

Classes are set to resume in September. Education Minister Zach Churchill confirmed Thursday school food programs will restart when school opens.

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