The Burlington Food Bank announced today that they have partnered with several local organizations, including Kerr Street Mission, Compass Point, and Open Doors at St. Christopher’s Church, to widen their impact and better serve people in Burlington, Oakville — and Halton as a whole.
Executive Director Robin Bailey made the big announcement outside of their not-yet-finished new location, with snow falling on the waiting crowd of local dignitaries, Burlington Food Bank volunteers, staff, and board members, and partners. Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, Oakville’s Mayor Rob Burton, Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr, and Amanda King, the director of network and government relations at Feed Ontario, were on hand to add their remarks in honour of the occasion.
Bailey mentioned that use of the food bank has nearly tripled in the five-and-a-half years since he started working at the food bank, from serving 12 families per day to 30–35 per day. Knowing the need is ever-increasing, the food bank’s board began thinking of how to go beyond serving individual families, how they might create an even bigger positive impact. They looked to examples like North York Harvest and the Mississauga Food Bank, discovered the magic that is created from local partnerships, and started their own relationship-building.
Their new Mainway location will not be open to the public; rather it will provide a vast space for fresh and frozen food to be delivered out to partner agencies. As the chair of the board Maria Thornton put it, this hub concept will allow the food bank to distribute a larger quantity of food than they would be able to otherwise. “Hunger is a hidden issue in most communities,” she noted, going on to say that this increase in resources will allow the Burlington Food Bank and its partners to “actually make strides in this region” in reducing hunger. Feed Ontario’s Amanda King later added to that point, “Together we are better than the sum of our equal parts.”
Bailey thanked all of the people and organizations involved, including Melrose Investment Inc. and their team, the food bank staff and volunteers, and the board. Carr thanked regional staff for their work, and encouraged participation in the region’s strategic planning process, to think on how the region can help them to do “what you do best.” Also in attendance were Halton’s Commissioner of Social and Community Services Alex Sarchuk, and Ward 2 and Ward 5 councillors Lisa Kearns and Paul Sharman. Kearns serves on the food bank’s board, and the new Mainway hub, which will be open in October, is in Ward 5.
