After a local food bank let residents know some of the struggles it faces, the community stepped up.
Pictou County Food Bank East operational coordinator Lia LeClair said the food bank, located in New Glasgow, is helping between 600-675 families per month. last month, she said they helped 637 families, which amounts to about 1,450 individuals. Since about 2020, the number of people they help rose about 30 per cent, with LeClair adding they are able to help families once per month.
Pictou County East Food Bank
With the increase in numbers, LeClair said the food bank is spending around $24,000 per month just on food. Because of this, LeClair said they had to stop buying certain items, such as juice and certain canned meat products. However, if they get those items as donations, they still go out in orders, along with milk, eggs, meat, canned soup, cereal, peanut butter, and whatever they get from Feed Nova Scotia.
About a week ago, the food bank posted some of this information on their social media, and since then, LeClair said they saw an uptick in donations.
LeClair thanked all of the volunteers at the food bank as well as the people offering