'How can people help': Community organizations aim to ramp up food access during pandemic

Agencies and organizations such as Shelter House, Dew Drop Inn, Grace Place, the Thunder Bay Food Bank, and the RFDA are either modifying or closing their services to the public amid COVID-19 concerns.

Roots to Harvest, a community based agencyin Thunder Bay, is responding to recent closures by exploring new ways of coordinating with organizations thatare working with the vulnerable population to access food.

"We called a meeting to coordinate an effort between all the different agencies that are working with vulnerable populations specifically around food access in Thunder Bay, to talk about how do we make sure we're meeting the needs and filling in the gaps," said Erin Beagle, executive director at Roots to Harvest.

Roots to Harvest and other agencies like Our Kids Count, Red Cross, and Youth Inclusion are looking at getting meals to families who were relying on food nutrition programs in school before they closed. Other organizations are exploring how to get food to clients who utilizelocal shelters and the food bank.

"There's this emergency response to increased needs at a food access level at places like Shelter House, Dew Drop In, and Grace Place who are doing hundreds of meals a day...are anticipating that going up as people stop earning money because they're losing hours," Beaglesaid.

Shelter House, Dew Drop Innand Grace Place are all switching to a take-away model for the time being, which has increased the need forcontainers to serve food.

Beagle said a coordinated message to the public is being crafted about the needs of the community, which will include a call out for things like monetary donations.

"So some places like Roots (Roots to Harvest), we're asking for baking supplies because we can cook food. Some places like Shelter House are looking for young volunteers. Many of the volunteers at these places are older volunteers and we don't want to compromise them. So looking for young volunteers be able to do things like prepare food because right now a lot of the groups are backing out from that," she said.

Yesterday, the Thunder Bay Food Bank announced it was closing indefinitely amid concerns for their clients and seniors volunteers. Beagle said without the food bank service, a lot of people will become more desperate.

"So what we'll see is more people accessing these daily meal programs which means increasing crowds and it's hard to control a crowd like that," she said.

Beagle added that many people have already offered to donate time, products and money and precautions are being taken when it comes to in-person volunteering.

"Really at Roots and at this table, we're talking about collaborating around community food supply. Our commitment is to let people know who to access and where to go and what's available."

For a comprehensive list of cancellations and closures in the region visit CBC Thunder Bay's page dedicated to Coronavirus Local Updates.

For more information and resources on how to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in northwestern Ontario, visit the Thunder Bay District Health Unit's website.