By Jeffrey Cuhna, News Reporter
BRAMPTON — Bruce Hubbert walks into the gathering hall of a food bank with a smile on his face. The area has been transformed into an assembly line overflowing with hygiene packages and boxes of yet-to-be-sorted donations.
Proudly wearing a Knights Table t-shirt, he points to the line and says “they need the help.”
Hubbert, a retired vice president of a family-owned lard manufacturing company and a Brampton resident, volunteers at the Glidden Road facility twice a week. He drives a branded food truck that delivers pre-packaged hot meals to the unhoused, seniors and Ukrainian refugees in the city facing food insecurity.
And he’s busy.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, Hubbert is out delivering 150 meals.
“When I first started doing it about a year and a half ago, I was doing about 70 to 80 meals per week,” Hubbert said. His busiest stop is at Wellington and Main Streets, in Brampton’s downtown core, where “they come running,” he said, with people waving him down by name.
A study by Food Banks Canada reflects the increased aid Hubbert is experiencing in its 2022 HungerCount report. It found that a growing number of Canadians are seeking help from food banks, up 35 per cent from 2019, the highest percentage of use measured in Canadian history.
The report indicates those on social assistance programs are falling further into poverty because of rising food and housing costs, Food Banks Canada CEO Kirstin Beardsley said.
“Food banks are facing uncharted challenges as turbulent economic conditions continue to exacerbate and deepen systemic inequities,” Beardsley said.
More than ever, seniors and employed racialized communities are accessing food banks, with student usage jumping 2.4 per cent from 2021 according to the report.
The Knights Table has been addressing the need for food insecurity in Brampton since 1990.
It was founded by Cecil Peter and the Knights of Columbus 9235 — a faith-based fraternal organization — after Peter noticed a man rummaging through a garbage can looking for food.
Since then, it has grown into the biggest and only multi-food charity service open every day of the year in the city with a small full-time staff and more than 3,200 volunteers.
The charity’s program administrator, Joanne Hopkinson, moves about in the cramped warehouse, greeting every volunteer by name. It’s filled with food donated by the community and corporate sponsors, including Canadian Tire Jumpstart, Tim Hortons, Costco and Walmart.
The donations are sorted and spread across the Region of Peel, in partnership with the Brampton Food Sharing Network. Hopkinson said demand this year is high.
“Our client numbers are increasing by two-fold,” she said, seeing new clients come into the food bank daily. While usage at the Knights Table is up, Hopkinson said the charity is “not getting those much-needed donations like we used to.”
She attributes the donation shortfall to people in the community losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic or simply not having anything extra left to give due to inflation.
Food Banks Canada said that establishing a minimum income floor, building more affordable housing, supporting low-income workers and addressing supply chain issues will assist in combating food insecurity.
Beardsley said the report is “a devastating wake-up call for all people living in Canada” and is calling on the government to implement its call-to-action recommendations.
The Knights Table is currently preparing for its Holiday Hamper program, which gives families in need one month’s worth of groceries, a kit to prepare a holiday dinner, toys, clothing and small appliances.
“When you see the moms come in and load those two big boxes of groceries into the car and then they come and they pick out the toys and take those away, they’re in tears,” Hopkinson said.
The HungerCount report said that in 2022, children accounted for 33.1 per cent of food bank clients.
“They’re just so grateful that they can now give their children a Christmas,” Hopkinson said.
To help ease any stigma, the food bank is implementing a change in how it distributes grocery items to its clients. They are building on a system that allows people to “shop” for items instead of receiving a box of goods they may not like or use due to religious accommodation.
Hopkinson said this is where financial donations can go further, allowing them to work with grocery partners to purchase items on an as-needed basis and pay for extra warehousing space and support outreach initiatives.
As the clinking of cans and chatter fills the room, Hubbert chuckles gratefully. He’s a volunteer ready for the long haul.
“It makes me feel good at the end of the day,” he said. Hubbert said he will continue to serve the community with hot meals.
“As long as I’m able to,” he said.