Sooke Food Bank closes early on hamper day
Source: Chek News
The Sooke Food Bank had to close its doors early on Thursday after “the perfect storm” created an unexpectedly high demand.
Kim Kaldal Metzger, the president of the Sooke Food Bank, says since the food bank only operates for the first three Thursdays of the month and the last time it was open was mid-August. They registered 14 new families, but another four families showed up that she sent home with food, but was unable to register due to how busy it was. On top of the 18 new families, Kim says the food bank had planned for an increase in demand this Thursday, expecting about 150 households to show up.
We had been closed since the 15th. It was the first week of school and we do school supplies. We had a record number of new clients. It was like the perfect storm. We thought we were ready for busy, but we were nowhere near ready for that busy. It would have been an 18 family/household day, and how do you sustain that? This is less about food and more about all the other things that people need help with. We probably had done almost 225 hampers yesterday, 225 households. That’s unreal.
Kim Kaldal Metzger, Sooke Food Bank President
The Sooke Food Bank had 1200 lbs. of fresh food to give to families on Thursday, which Kim said thought would have been enough. The food bank typically opens at 9:30am, but opened 15 minutes early due to the lineup. It usually gives out its last hamper around 2:30pm, but by 1:30pm had run out and had to shut the doors.
This issue isn’t unique to Sooke. Food Banks Canada found there was a 32% increase in food bank use in March 2023 compared to the year prior and elsewhere on Vancouver Island, food banks have also reported seeing a similar increase in need. However, Kim says there are some unique challenges that Sooke faces.
“We don’t have enough jobs out in Sooke to help everybody. We don’t have real bus service. I was told by a business owner in Sooke that he likes Sooke kids and wants to hire them, but depending on their availability for rides, if they’re bussing, he kind of considers them unreliable. Well, how does that help our problem?” she said. “It’s like the housing, although grateful to have all this housing, and these people are finally in housing that as long as they can make that rent, they’re not going to get kicked out. It’s not helping the front line stuff.”
She says many people who live in Sooke commute to the West Shore or Victoria for work, which increases transportation costs for households. A 2022 Capital Regional District study found that in a 24 hour period, 3,470 people were travelling outside of Sooke for work, compared to 1,310 that stayed within Sooke. Of the 10,090 people surveyed travelling outside of Sooke for any reason in a 24 hour period (including work) 94% travelled by a personal vehicle, while only 6% use transit, walking or other means of transportation.
Kim says she’s grateful for all the support the food bank receives from the local community and local organizations. She says the food bank is also very well supported from the local Sooke city council and provincially, but would like to see more federal support to address the underlying issues related to poverty and food insecurity.
Kim says when a number of new homes in Sooke opened, she hoped that would mean some of her formerly homeless clients would be able to get solid footing and not need to rely on the food bank anymore. “As families and people and our singles and seniors got housed in this appropriate housing, I thought I would be losing 5-10 clients a day, and that didn’t happen,” she said. “But I’m so grateful for it, because otherwise I know some of those people living in those buildings were homeless, so I much rather serve them where I know that they’re safe at night and warm and dry and with dignity.”