The holiday season means busy times for the Newmarket Food Pantry.
The local food bank is hard at work as local food drives bring thousands of pounds of food. The pantry will push for it, with donations supplying enough to get them through the spring.
“It’s all hands on deck, it’s our volunteers and staff, it’s go, go, go,” Newmarket Food Pantry executive director Adrian Bain said. “At the end of the day, people are getting fed. That is a good challenge. A good problem with too much food coming in.”
With the holiday spirit in full swing, several Newmarket organizations are running food drives. The Market Brewery donated 2200 pounds in food and $1,160 in cash Nov. 27. The Northern York Region Chinese community donated 5,700 pounds of food and packed over 200 boxes this week. The Town of Newmarket, meanwhile, has its own food and toy collection drive until Dec. 17.
Bain said the community support is overwhelming this time of year. He said demand for their services remains high amidst the pandemic.
“Our first-time usage has doubled over the course of the last year. That’s a really staggering statistic to us,” he said. “But it’s important to note food insecurity was on the rise before COVID, pre-pandemic as well. This is exasperating the issue a little bit.”
He said government support programs like CERB have helped. But he said factors like unemployment, unaffordable housing, and an inadequate social safety net still make food insecurity an issue.
However, the generosity of people helps. He said “cash is king” as far as donations go, but there are plenty of items the food bank needs, including baked beans, coffee, canned goods, school snacks like granola bars and side dishes. They are also running a turkey drive, with $20 getting a family a turkey dinner and a goal of distributing 400 turkeys.
Still, Bain said they could use more summer donations for when holiday season supplies start to run out.
Plenty of other groups are organizing food drives, big and small. The Newmarket Renegades U10 AA hockey team is running one out of Microplay at Bayview and Mulock.
"Many people in our community are using the food pantry, and we would like to support them," player Kody Cinnamon said in a Facebook video.
Bain said he would like to see a day where the food pantry is no longer needed and can close, with food insecurity solved.
Until then, he said the community has risen to the challenge of increasing demand, with the food pantry growing from offering three to four days of emergency food relief to 10 to 14 days.
“That’s a testament to the community, that’s a testament to the organizations, the associations, the schools, the individuals, all of our sponsors,” he said. “People are getting fed, and we have the community to thank for that.”
