Crapaud food bank struggling to keep up with demand

The shelves are running bare atthe South Shore Food Bank and operators sayit's struggling to keep up with demand, as the number of people using its service grows while donations dwindle.

The food bank, located in Crapaud, P.E.I., was started almost three years ago to help families in the area. It now helps people from Borden-Carleton to Cornwall.

"There's a food bank inSummersideand Charlottetown, but if you can't afford food, how can you afford to have a car on the road to go and access these food banks? It's not possible," said Marianna Burda, one of the operators of the food bank.

"So we went from one family to another family, and it just grew from there."

'Demand far outweighs our supply'

For the last number of years, Burdasaid about 20 families would use the bank regularly. However, in the last year, that numberhas grown to about 30 families.

"It's really hard to keep up ... the demand far outweighs our supply."

According to fellow operators Jackie and Jenny Myers, there's no regular influx of groceries because there's no major grocery store nearby. As for financial contributions,their goal is to have $4,000 in the organization's bank account to buy supplies, but as of right now, that budget hasbeen reduced by half.

"I think we're under $2,000 now which makes me a little sick to my stomach, going into the winter when people aren't working, and are relying more on us," Jackiesaid.

Personally donated $1K

The food bank receives a few regular food donations from community members, but are hoping for more. It also posted a plea on Facebook for donations from businesses and corporations who could give on a regular basis.

"It's hard to continuously ask people to continuously give, give, give. The community is so generous already. But we can make a little bit of money go really, really far," Jackie said.

The Myers, who own The Lobster Barn in Victoria, have donated $1,000 from their own business to keep the food bank afloat.

"We're just trying to hang on," said Jenny.

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