Some northern Manitobans forced to choose between shelter or food, friendship centre exec says
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With food prices continuing to rise, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak says its food bank in Thompson is serving a growing number of clients.
Catherine Helgason, the supervisor of the food bank, says it can be difficult to keep up with community demand because there's so much food insecurity the north.
"It's not only affecting our lower-income families, it's affecting our middle-class family and high-end families as well, just because the price of everything has gone up," Helgason said.
MKO, the advocacy organization for First Nations in northern Manitoba, says its food bank serves around 100 to 150 visitors a week.
So far in 2023, it has helped more than 880 different households, ranging from one person to multi-generational families. They also hope to give away around 400 hampers for Christmas.
There are just under 4,700 households in total in Thompson.
The food bank serves two different client lists. MKO provides food every two weeks to First Nations people registered to a First Nations band but living in Thompson. With help from Harvest Manitoba, it also started providing food to non-Indigenous clients once a month in May 2023.
The monthly donation from Harvest can be a truckload of anywhere from five to 15 pallets of food.
Those deliveries consist mostly of frozen meat, some dry goods and some frozen fruit and vegetables, Helgason said. The food bank also recently started getting fresh produce from Harvest.
Local donors include community members and grocery stores.
"Sometimes the shelves aren't always full. We don't always get the stuff we need in town," Helgason said.
Pierre Sinclair, who works at the food bank, says he sees more and more people use it every year.
"We do get donated items, but yeah, keeping this place stocked is pretty hard," Sinclair said.
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