A funny thing happened during the three weeks that I spent eating meals from a food bank hamper.
I learned how incredibly fortunate I am.
For one thing, the test lasted only three weeks by my choice. It's not like I was relying on the hamper for real. It's also a good thing that I consider myself a curious omnivore. I feel pretty good in my body most days. My shape and weight are satisfactory. I drink lots of water and don't eat a lot of junk. My body doesn't have strong negative reactions to a lot of chemical additives and preservatives.
Much changed when I received my hamper of about 20 kg of non-perishable canned goods. I told myself I would stick to three square meals a day, all planned in advance. Most importantly, I would try to combine things in strange and wonderful new ways in order to keep a variety on my plate. I started off strong but soon found out exactly how challenging the reality of the situation is.
A few sample hamper meals
After getting through a few packages of pastries that quickly went past their stale date, my creative juices flowed into the kitchen. Not always able to spend an hour cooking every night, I turned to combining things like a can of beans and savoury relish (not the hamburger variety) which was actually pretty good, especially on toast. I made macaroni with tomato soup and added a few hot dogs from my own fridge. On days that I craved more substantial and nutritious fare, a microwaved bag of frozen vegetables with rice did the trick. All were pretty quick and easy, perfect for a single guy like me. I ate instant oatmeal or cereal for breakfast with reconstituted milk powder and had cans of tuna or salmon with herbs for lunch. Granola bars and a box of chocolates rounded out my snacks. All was good.
Soon though I was side railed by the routine of business as usual interfering with any change. By the end of the test, I was eating cans of ham, cold beans or Irish stew right out of the tins with a few soda crackers on the side. Who knows? Another week or even a few days more and I might have been grazing the leaves off of trees, just to add something green to my diet. If there was one big lesson that I learned it was that cans don't grow on trees. Probably the unluckiest thing that happened was that I didn't get any fruits or vegetables in my hamper. There were many, many peanut butter sandwiches.
Avoiding a Mother Hubbard situation
Suzan Krecsy, the executive director at the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village, said that it was an unusual day for me to pick up my hamper.
"It was the luck of the draw. There were no fruits and no vegetables that day, and no meat," she explained. "It was a really bad day… but it happens because of donations. It was the worst-case scenario. It's very infrequent that we don't have meat at least."
It's just that cans of food are cheaper, meaning donors can buy more, plus they also have a much longer shelf life so the food bank can stock up when times are really tight.
"Most of our donations are non-perishable but we do get a lot of fresh produce that's brought in seasonally through the community garden which is great."
Whatever the case, the organization's motto is 'no one goes hungry.' It even makes special exceptions and considerations for people of all ideologies including strict vegetarians and Muslims.
"We've got donors who are suffering from either celiac disease or they have diabetes. They will provide us with special food. We don't go out and purchase that."
I also made a classic and unnecessary mistake by never asking for help. She said that the food bank knows the struggles many people face in the kitchen and it has no intention of just leaving them high and dry. If you get stuck and frustrated then the food bank is just a phone call away.
"That's what opening up the community kitchen is going to do. It's going to help people."
Clients can receive up to 12 hampers a year and it isn't meant to be the only food in your pantry. It is supposed to complement what you already have.
"It is just a supplement to what they have or don't have at home. Sometimes we'll have folks that have had to move because of a domestic violence situation and they have absolutely nothing. We would bump up what they get to make sure that they have their staples. Special cases might have to come in more often. If we can lessen that stress by helping them a little bit more often with food, we will on the short-term basis, not a long-term continual basis. If they do need extra help, they'll get it."
This is not a cold, heartless institution. It's a place of consideration and caring.
"If they have to come in every month though, then there's a big issue that [community liaison worker Fay Lucy] can start looking at as well but we certainly don't turn people away."
Lucy has only been on the job here since mid-January but she has already made 300 referrals to other service agencies for her clients. That list of people includes about 150 people who Krecsy considers long-term recipients of hampers.
"The hardest part of her job is trying to understand the system and help people navigate through it."
The future
The community kitchen under the guidance of dedicated volunteers is starting to hold cooking workshops to give food bank clients a greater knowledge base and more confidence at home. Participants can go through a sample hamper to develop some meal ideas and even test out a recipe. Call 780-459-0599 if you would like to attend one of these sessions.
Kelly Deis is one of those volunteers. She has experience as a nutritionist and sees how incredibly easy it is to provide extremely valuable information to the masses.
"We don't always make the best choices. I have to say over the years that the more you do plan … that you help minimize some of the impact [of having limited food resources]. We all end up in a bind. I've been doing weekly recipes for over 35 years and I do find that that makes a big difference."
There is also a new Tools for School program going on. Hamper recipients from St. Albert can access free backpacks filled with school supplies for their children. This is just another initiative that proves how the food bank never stops thinking of ways to help those who need it.
"It's for folks that are struggling," Krecsy said. "Somebody told me that it costs about $100 per child to get them ready for school and that's on the low end. That's just for supplies, not school clothes and other things."
Food bank usage continues to rise with 16 new clients in the last month alone. It has served almost 1,000 families so far this year. The food bank is also currently experiencing a net deficit where the weight of outgoing hampers is greater than that of incoming donations. Thankfully it will be holding its annual drive on Sept. 18 so that residents can help it to fill up its shelves simply by putting a paper bag of non-perishables out on their steps.
