COVID-19 hasn’t taken away the Salvation Army Elgin Street food bank’s ability to provide food to those in need, thanks to the help of large donations of food from local businesses and government funding.
“In fact, we’re better equipped now to serve people than we have been. We have more food, our operations are working very smoothly,” said a busy Salvation Army Major Sean Furey, speaking to SooToday over the phone Tuesday while taking a quick break from serving clients.
Furey said local businesses have been stepping up to donate large quantities of food to help not only the Salvation Army’s traditional clientele of the elderly, the disabled and others in need of a meal, but also the many people recently hit hard with job loss because of COVID-19’s economic havoc.
“The food orders are significantly bigger now than they would have been in the past...we’re just trying to make sure everybody gets the help they need,” Furey said.
“A lot of time we get people who show up here and I’ll just say to them ‘we’ll deliver this order’ because they don’t have the ability to lift it. The food packages can be 50 or 60 pounds depending on the size of the family... today with every order there were 10 pounds of potatoes.”
Furey said the business and government help has packed the Salvation Army’s shelves with dairy products, meat, bread, produce and more.
“Every client now is getting meat along with canned goods, pasta and cereal. Today, aside from all the canned goods, there was frozen lasagna, chicken burgers, vegetables, fruit, potato chips, all kinds of goodies.”
Furey added the Salvation Army has dog food, cat food and toilet paper available, as well as hundreds of bottles of shampoo.
Furey said those who have suffered economic loss due to COVID-19 may avail themselves of food by placing a phone call to the Salvation Army at (705) 759-4143 and registering.
“We’re seeing people we’ve never seen before.”
The Salvation Army is encouraging those who have never had to approach a food bank for help to not feel shy, timid or embarrassed about it.
“Definitely not. A lot of people are in the same boat right now. There’s no shame in asking for help, especially not now,” Furey said.
The Salvation Army Community and Family Services foodbank may be contacted from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.
“The clients can knock on the door and we’ll serve them, we’ll put a table out on the sidewalk and we’ll bring it out there (to observe social distancing), but we’re encouraging people to just phone in,” Furey said.
“Book an appointment, and if you don’t have a file with us we create one for you, which is very quick to do, a couple of minutes at most. Everything has to be recorded for Feed Ontario (formerly known as the Ontario Association of Food Banks).”
Furey said February numbers show 245 families were provided with food by the local Salvation Army, jumping to 574 families in March, a dramatic increase once COVID-19 hit.
So far, April’s numbers are not as high as those of March, Furey stating that is currently giving the Salvation Army the capacity to serve more people.
“We’re well equipped, we’re stocked and we’re serving a lot of people. Our numbers are up, of course, they’re up a lot, but we could do a lot more, we could probably even double what we’re doing now before we’d start to run into trouble.”
“We have a 10-week supply of food here right now.”
Furey said Sault Search and Rescue volunteers and cab drivers have been helping Salvation Army members with delivery.
“It’s amazing how people in the community have said ‘I want to help.’”
The clients are appreciative, Furey said.
“They’re just blown away. We had two young guys here Monday, and when they took their food order, they put it all out on the sidewalk to see what they got, and we were inside the building having a good chuckle because it was like Christmas for them.”
“It makes you feel good that you’re able to have such an impact on your community. The Salvation Army is about giving people hope. For people who are poor, especially at this time, there’s a lot of fear, so we like to take away that food insecurity and replace it with hope.”
“There are a lot of organizations that are helping the community. Combined, we’re all able to do the job. The most vulnerable in our society are not being left out in the cold,” Furey said.
Clients may not enter the Salvation Army’s Elgin Street food bank due to COVID-19 social distancing. Salvation Army volunteers are themselves practicing social distancing in the building, Furey stating only a skeleton crew is at work in the building at any given time.
In return for all its good work, is the Salvation Army in need of anything?
“We need a freezer,” Furey chuckled, but only half in jest.
Because donations of food have been so great, Furey said, “I had to turn away hundreds of pounds of chicken because we don’t have a place to put it, and a skid of ice cream too.”
Anyone interested in donating a fair-sized chest freezer may feel free to call the Salvation Army, Furey said.
