While shelves are fully stocked after a flood of festive food donations, the Aurora Food Pantry's executive director worries that supplies will run out as the holidays are left behind.
The food bank received months worth of food in the last two weeks of December, which the organization's roughly 50 volunteers are still sorting through and shelving, according to Sandra Seepaul, executive director of the Aurora Food Pantry.
Seepaul estimates that supply will last for a couple of months until the end of February, but she worries what will happen when the current supply of food runs out, and donations slow down.
The food pantry director said while Aurorans were very generous over the holidays, donations generally drop off when a new year begins.
“Everything came in within a very short time-period, and the question is what happens when you get past that. So fast forward to the end of February, mid-March, all those donations have been used, so where does that then leave us?” said Seepaul.
She noted somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent of the donations will never make it onto the pantry’s shelves, as the food is well past expired and will have to be thrown out.
”Will people continue to give? Or will people forget until next Christmas, because that’s unfortunately, generally, what we find — people get into the giving mood during the holiday season and then they forget about us the rest of the year, which is something we’re trying to change,” she added. “This is not a once-a-year problem.”
Speaking back in June, Seepaul said the organization was grappling with an “all-time low” in donations, with the organization having to dip into its reserve funds to purchase non-perishable foods. At the time, Seepaul estimated the food bank could last for another year or two at that rate.
But now, Seepaul said the pantry has not had to use reserve funds to purchase non-perishable items since October.
Demand remains high. Over the summer, the pantry was serving around 1,200 people a month, more than double the roughly 600 people a month who were using the food bank in April 2022.
Seepaul said the food pantry continues to run promotions to encourage people to donate throughout the year. She said food or monetary donations are appreciated, although monetary donations can often be stretched further as the food pantry can buy items in bulk.
As part of those efforts, the pantry is running a holiday family donation drop-off event on Jan. 3, to allow families to come in and learn about its operations. The event is from 1 to 5 p.m. at 350 Industrial Pkwy.
More information about what items are needed can be found on the pantry’s website.
