Fredericton food bank hopes people will count down to Christmas by stocking shelves

The Greener Village food bank in Fredericton, N.B., is preparing for the holiday season, but stocking the shelves after Christmas is what executive director Alex Boyd worries about.

"It's been a challenging year,” says Boyd. “Food banks are kind of in a double whammy in that demand is significantly up because there's so many more people that need our services, but also to provide the resource is so much more expensive as well because prices are rising.”

Boyd adds that the food bank’s budget has been “hard pressed” this year.

“We've gone well beyond what we thought we'd be spending on food this year,” he says. “That's just what we need to do to make sure people get the resources they need, but our demand is actually up about 40 per cent more than last year."

That is about 1,400 families a month, roughly 300 to 400 more a month than this time last year.

This year, the food bank is hoping the holiday season will put people in the giving spirit with the creation of reverse advent calendars.

"Every day, there's a specific item that you take out of your pantry or your cupboard and you put in a special place to bring to the food bank at the end of the calendar. You're basically building a food hamper over the course of 23 days,” says Boyd.

There's something else that is also short supply at the food bank this season.

"I think the biggest thing, honestly, in the time that I've been here, is that there are even fewer volunteers than when I started out,” says Kevin Dick, who volunteers at Greener Village a few hours a week. “It may have been just that it dropped off a little bit over the summer with people being on vacation and stuff like that, but getting more people in would kind of be the big thing.”

Boyd says support is up from last year, but not at the same rate as demand.

The food bank hopes the reverse advent calendar will inspire more people to give.

"It'll help us to start off the year really strong and have the resources we really need in those lean months of January, February, March, and April to be able to meet the need as it goes forward," says Boyd.

Greener Village food donations make up about 70 to 80 per cent of the food they distribute.

To find the reverse advent calendar list, you can visit Greener Village's Facebook page or website.