The Link Food Centre is committed to ensuring people in Burns Lake and surrounding communities have enough food to eat. But the food bank is struggling after a year of lower donations, higher demand for food, and rising costs associated with providing food, leaving it with a deficit in the tens of thousands of dollars.
The Food Centre served the communities of Burns Lake, Southside, Granisle and Tachet in 2024, producing 3,458 food hampers and helping 1,101 individuals secure food.
The food bank served 491 households last year, and 29 per cent of those households were new to being served by the food bank. It's a statistic that illustrates a trend seen in food banks across Canada. According to Food Banks Canada, there were over two million visits to food banks in the country in March 2024, the highest number in history and a 90 per cent increase compared to 2019.
The Link Food Centre's demand went up an estimated 25 per cent in 2024, according to manager Ray Savard.
"I think that's reflective of people's ability to make ends meet," Savard said. "If you take a look at the national standards, a lot of people being served are families, it's not individual street people, a lot of it is families."
Amid surging demand, donations were meagre during the food bank's Season of Giving, a two to three-week period of festive activities around the holidays during which the food bank campaigns for donations. The food bank saw a 42 per cent decrease in donations during the 2024 Season of Giving compared to the year previous.
Savard says that decrease wasn't for a lack of individual donors, who provided "tremendous" support. Instead, the decline was in terms of the number of businesses and companies that were able to donate, an indication that the business sector is facing tighter times, too.
"We're not immune to the economic activity that's happening around us," Savard said. "The overall economy affects individuals' abilities to give, and any downturns in the area affect corporate donations to us."
Compounding the food bank's problems, the cost of providing a food hamper increased 37 per cent from 2020 to 2024.
The rising demand and food hamper cost, coupled with decreasing donations, led the food bank to an operating deficit of as much as $80,000 in 2024, said Savard, putting the food bank in a tough spot.
"It's clear to me that the ability of the organization to make up those differences is not likely in the future," Savard said. "I don't know that we're going to make up the difference. We're looking at ways that we can do that."
Savard said the food bank, a registered charity, may need to become more business-minded in order to sustain itself while meeting the demand.
"I think that we ourselves have to be more entrepreneurial. We can have an entrepreneurial side that sort of makes up money. We could do things that earn us money at the same time that we're getting donations. So I think that's a direction we're going to have to look at."
Savard said the public can help the food bank by spreading the word — and more corporate help would always be welcome.
"I think (the food bank needs) increased awareness that it's a difficult time for us, and I think that where possible a good corporate citizenship, giving back to the community, is needed."
Of course, people can also donate directly to the food bank. To do so or to learn more, visit thelink-ld.ca/food-centre/.
The Link Food Centre building at 788 Centre Street is open Tuesdays and Thursdays for emergency food distribution. It runs a mobile food centre — a refrigerated van that delivers food hampers to outlying communities, including Danskin and Grassy Plains.
The Link also has a school food program and runs a community garden and greenhouse, among other activities and programs.
