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Participants miss fresh fruit, veggies while eating food bank fare
From Page 1
lawed for human consumption - I
found it just terrible," he said.
Oke noticed.his cereal was stale and
four months' overdue and remarked
that it's likely that some people use
their food bank donations to get rid
of stale food out of their cupboards.
"But, I guess if you're poor and you
have no other choice, you're grateful
to have food available," he said.
Oke said his experience with two
days of food bank food has him wor-
rying about the increasing numbers
of people forced to use the food bank
as unemployment figures continue
to rise.
"We've seen the best, not the worst
of the recession yet and with unem-
ployment figures going up, I'm not
sure what to expect. There might
have been some abuse of food banks
in the past but I think it's going to be
a necessity for many people - there
are a lot of vulnerable people out
there," he said.
Janice Dunbar, of the Huron Coun-
ty Health Unit, said the awareness
campaign was "fabulous."
I was touched by how seriously ev-
eryone took the experience and how
honest they were," she said of the
blogs.
Dunbar said having members of
the media talk about their difficul-
ties eating food bank fare helped to
increase awareness in the commu-
Nr especially as the numbers of re-
cipients doubles this year at most of
the Huron County food banks.
"Ontario Works
figures are up 30
per cent from
April '08 to April
• '09 and that's
pretty. signifi-
cant.
More and
inore people are
coming to food
banks, mostly
because of the
rising unemploy-
ment rates," she
said.
She said con-
clusion drawn
from most of the
participants in-
cluded the idea
of donating what
you would like
to eat yourself
when giving to
the food bank
and trying to
give fresh food
or the money to
buy it.
She said the
Grand Bend
Community
Health Centre
donates 10 of
the health unit's
Good Food Boxes
to its local food
bank so that fresh food can be shared
among food bank recipients.
Maureen Spittal, chair of the Sea -
forth and District Food Bank, said
she enjoyed reading the blogs but
added that since most recipients re-
ceive a week's worth of food, it would
have been interesting to extend
the experiment from two days to a
week.
"The experience made everyone
aware of how fortunate they are to
have money to buy a healthy diet. I
thought they were totally honest and
realized how privileged they are,"
she said.
Spittal agreed that while food
banks need to stock canned food that
is full of preservatives and sodium,
getting fresh fruits and vegetables to
the people who need them is really a
challenge.
"Think of the guilt of parents who
are informed about the need for a
healthy diet but can't give it to their
kids," she said.
Statistics at the Seaforth food bank
also show the need has doubled from
last year. While in April of 2007, 171
clients were served and in April of
2008, 176 clients were served, num-
bers have gone up to 310 people us-
ing the food bank in April, 2009.
"And, in this economic climate, we
expect to see the numbers continue
to rise," she said adding that most
new clients are either recently laid
off or are trying to get by on mini-
mum wage while raising three or
four children.
Spittal said it's a shame that
• AGES 5-12
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there's still a stigma attached to the
food bank and judgment on those
who need it. r j.
"This isn't a very nice place. Would
you like to line up here for food?" she
said she told a school group when a
student asked if anyone takes food
who doesn't need it.
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