The head of Saanich Neighbourhood Place says the organization has seen explosive growth in demand for its weekly meal program since the pandemic, much of it from families that have never needed help before.
What began about 2012 as a sit-down dinner every week for 10 to 15 families in need grew during COVID to providing weekly takeout meals to about 20 families.
Executive director Jacquelin Green said the group received one-year funding to add a second dinner, and began serving 40 families a week.
But that wasn’t enough. “The wait list grew. And grew. And grew,” said Green, whose organization is one of 10 neighbourhood houses in the capital region, and serves all of Saanich. (There are seven in Victoria, one in Sooke and one on the Peninsula.)
“Since COVID, the need for food security services has skyrocketed for our community and, by extension, for us.”
Soon there were more than 100 families on the wait list, which Saanich Neighbourhood Place tried to accommodate on a rotational basis, ensuring everyone received meals a couple of times a month.
Now, 245 families — or about 1,100 adults, youth, and children — receive takeout meals on a rotational basis, with a capacity of 40 family meals per week. The program is no longer accepting new families.
“This leaves many people each week patiently waiting for their turn to access this much-needed resource, and more people are requesting the service every week,” said Green.
“We have to turn them away, redirecting them to our community kitchen programs, where people come together in a social setting to make a healthy meal to take home to their families.”
The community kitchen programs have the added bonus of providing social connection, she said, “which is invaluable to support mental health alongside food security.”
The program has a shorter wait list, but only six families can participate each week, “so it, too, is limited,” said Green.
In addition to its family takeout dinners and community-kitchen programs, Saanich Neighbourhood Place provides community fridges — containing food donated by and purchased from grocery stores — used by many community members “in demographics that we have not previously served.”
The fridges are in the neighbourhood house’s Pearkes Recreation Centre location, and in its child and family centre behind the rec centre.
“Seniors are using this service in high numbers, when we never actually served seniors before,” said Green. “Many newcomer families, single-parent families and families who have never needed to access food before are now regularly relying on our community fridges to get them through the week.”
The group offers a Food Skills for Families class, and emergency food hampers “when we have food available,” said Green.She said the group’s staff and volunteers serve people “with dignity, respect and some lovin’ from the oven.”
Green said the neighbourhood house received “a very generous grant” from the sa国际传媒 Christmas Fund via the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller.
From Nov. 12 to Dec. 13, the 2024 Christmas Fund has raised $714,368.72 from 2,198 donors with a goal to match the $1.12 million donated last year. The fund, which started in 1956, is one of the oldest Christmas-related charity efforts in British Columbia.
The sa国际传媒 Christmas Fund Society, a charitable organization, works with the local chapter of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller to get the money to dozens of community agencies in Greater Victoria and elsewhere on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
Last year, the Christmas Fund distributed grants to 53 Vancouver Island charities.
Green said she’s grateful for the privilege of doing the work she does every day.
“We all deserve to thrive, not just survive, and food is central to that,” she said, thanking both those who raise the funds and donate “to agencies like ours that need them.”
HOW TO DONATE TO THE CHRISTMAS FUND
• Go online to . That page is linked to sa国际传媒Helps, which is open 24 hours a day and provides an immediate tax receipt.
• Use your credit card by phoning 250-995-4438 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• Cheques should be made out to the sa国际传媒 Christmas Fund. Drop them at the sa国际传媒 office in Vic West, 201-655 Tyee Road, Victoria.
• Or, for the duration of the postal strike, contact Maximum Express for free pickup and delivery of your cheque. Call dispatch at 250-721-3278 or email [email protected].
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