Food bank shelves are bare in Saint John and soup kitchen worker Phyllis Beckingham says she has been feeding more mouths than she’s used to at the Romero House Soup Kitchen.
“There’s lots of new faces coming in, you see it every day, there’s new faces in. They are from single, right up to families,” says Beckingham.
Food banks are there to help families in need of food, but with empty shelves, workers worry that such families may be walking away empty-handed.
“Donations seem to go down and pick up later on in the year, so there is a need,” says Victor Fitzgerald, president of the food bank in Saint John’s north end.
Fitzgerald says summer isn’t typically a busy time for food banks, but this year’s numbers have been higher than normal. He blames the increased need for food on the lack of employment.
“People don’t have work,” says Fitzgerald. “They have to look around to make ends meet and this is one of the places they come, the food bank.”
Staff at food banks around Saint John say food donations always seem to decrease in the summer and this year is no different.
“Summertime, people go on vacations and they sort of, kind of forget about us,” says Beckingham.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Dunbar
