The Sharing Place Food Bank in Orillia is facing a severe food shortage. With most of the shelves bare, they are imploring the public to help, and they are hoping that help comes in the form of more nutritious donations.
“We want to fill our shelves with the healthiest food sources we can get. The most inaccessible food is healthy food. We want to break down those barriers and make it more accessible.”
Chris Peacock is the executive director at the food bank and says they are running low on everything.
“It’s a struggle for us because the shelves are empty. We are low on our entire inventory.”
Peacock says they provide food to 1,200 people every month, year-round. He says outside of the holidays they see a 30 to 40 percent decrease in donations.
“Our demand is 12 months a year. It requires us to be able to get donations to feed people.”
The food bank is in need of various non-perishable items like canned tomatoes, canned meat, canned vegetables, peanut butter, feminine hygiene products and bread, but financial donations are what Peacock says they need the most.
“Money allows us to purchase healthy food, like fresh produce. We need to purchase that ourselves. We have the ability to buy food strategically based on what we need at that time, and we can buy at wholesale cost so we can really stretch a dollar.”
