Feed Nova Scotia trying 'any and all ways' to get food to areas hard hit by Fiona

Feed Nova Scotia is teaming up with a courier that has smaller trucks to ensure food is delivered to communities in Cape Breton, where some roads are still impassable after the devastation of post-tropical storm Fiona. 

Feed Nova Scotia works with 16 frontline agencies in Cape Breton and 140 across the province. 

Nick Jennery, executive director of the organization, spoke with Mainstreet Cape Breton host Wendy Bergfeldt on Tuesday about the need they're seeing and what they're doing to help.

Their conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

What are you hearing about the need right now, and let's start with Cape Breton?

The responses range from Antigonish who said they've got lots of local support and would appreciate a hot coffee to Glace Bay who won't be operational for days — no gas, no propane and desperately need non-perishables and hearty veg. 

And we're fortunate to have a generator, which we put in a couple of years ago thinking this day will come and it kept us operational. We are distributing whatever we have in inventory so what that means is two five ton trucks fully loaded are going to Cape Breton first thing [Wednesday] morning to support those 16 frontline agencies.

We've sent six pallets of food boxes to the CBRM comfort centre that arrived [Tuesday night]. Food boxes have been sent to Antigonish Red Cross and we've also supported 11 comfort centres in HRM. We're receiving pallets of food, cleanup and personal hygiene kits from an organization called Global Medic, which is flying in that product from Toronto.

The last thing I would say is that we're looking to send money in addition to the food in proportion to the recovery time. Clearly organizations, such as in Glace Bay, are going to be much longer in their recovery than an organization that may have lost its power and will be back up in a matter of days. 

I know there are other parts of Nova Scotia that were hit really hard, such as Pugwash and Amherst. What are you hearing from those people?

We're hearing a variety of things. People are trying to stay operational. Not having any propane is a big deal if you're in the meal-cooking business, but there has been lots of local support. For instance, the fire departments in several communities have offered to take in frozen product which is being stored on site in their operations. 

I think one of the most heartening things that I heard was in Glace Bay, who really were severely impacted, they did manage to squeeze out a BBQ meal on Monday before they ran out of propane. So we're seeing lots of volunteers just doing everything they can to provide access to food. 

There's still trees and debris on the roads. How are you getting into communities like Glace Bay where it is a bit of a maze to try to get anywhere?

A vulnerability for this province is the availability of trucks and truck parts and the people who supply that, you know, with their power down just makes the situation even worse. So we're working in coordination with Midland Courier, which has a pretty extensive infrastructure, smaller trucks, bigger trucks to help us manage deliveries to some of those smaller, harder to reach areas. We'll try any and all ways to get food to whatever destination as long as it's done safely.

So this is a massive event for Feed Nova Scotia and I know that you have procurement strategies, but have you ever seen anything like this?

Categorically, I would say no. I was really happy to see a quick response from the government on this. So we've just done this with whatever we have on site. We're clearly depleting any inventory that we have, but with the [$500,00] provincial money, which is very welcomed, that will allow us to do two really big things. One: to buy more food. And secondly to cut cheques to those organizations that can use the money to get back on their feet, and also in a smaller way to pay for some of the logistic supports where our trucks cannot get to the communities in need. 

Is there enough supply behind that to make sure that you're going to get enough you need to distribute?

We buy north of $1 million worth of food every year. We're not a big buyer of food compared to some of the retail operations, but we do have a number of contacts and connections so we're working with the local wholesalers, we're working with food brokers, importers. It's all about getting the food, non-perishable foods primarily and hearty vegetables to get them here as soon as possible — whatever route that comes. 

There are people listening who have power who maybe didn't have the same experience, but they're asking themselves, what can I do to help? What would you say to them?

Look out for your neighbour. Don't assume that they're OK. Just check in on them. Make sure that they have what they need, and also to make sure that, you know, emotionally they're in a good spot because this type of thing lands with people in very different ways.

It has ripped the Band-Aid off the situation that we have in Nova Scotia, where people are just hanging on wondering about how to put food on the table or do they pay their rent? But they can't do both. The storm has just made it worse, so all the more reason to just check in to your neighbours. This is what Nova Scotians do oh so well.