By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
During the last weeks of December, the energy at a food bank anywhere matches that of the North Pole. There is a highly motivated team of close-knit community members hurriedly hustling to ensure that the people of their city and beyond get the break they deserve, whatever holiday they observe. Every table in the region must be laden with good celebratory meals. Every fridge and cabinet must be stocked, regardless of the time, effort, and cost. The Burlington Food Bank, located at 1254 Plains Road East, is no exception.
When January rolls around, none of that zeal or that necessity is lost. People add “donate more to charity” or “spend more time doing charity work” to their New Year’s resolutions list and the need for help has not subsided just because the holidays are over. The year 2024 saw many people happily and voluntarily giving their time to Burlington’s main resource for immediate area food insecurity.
“There are well over 12,000 hours of volunteer time dedicated to running the food bank Monday to Friday, not including volunteers for special events like parades, food drives, cram-a-cruisers, etc.,” states Burlington Food Bank Manager Christina Mulder. On the amount of donated food collected throughout 2024, Mulder speculates there were “hundreds of thousands of pounds of food.”
It’s hard, unrelenting work keeping the Halton region well-fed all year round. Luckily, the community of Burlington can be relied upon to provide. “We are fortunate that the Burlington community is so thoughtful and generous. While at times we run lower in donations (May to September), we are able to purchase what we need from the financial contributions we receive,” Mulder says. “We saw a 33% increase in new users in 2024. In 2023, we ended the year having fed a remarkable 25,000 people. That number was just under 35,000 at the end of 2024. This is a huge increase and one that we do not see dropping off anytime soon.”
Mulder and Robin Bailey, executive director at Feed Halton and the Burlington Food Bank, have this to say on the food bank’s overall performance in 2024, and what they hope to achieve in the new year of 2025.
Answers have been lightly edited for flow.
What goals has the Burlington Food Bank achieved in 2024 for feeding and helping the community?
Bailey: I think a lot of it has been an increase in terms of what we’re offering out to clients. We’ve done a great job over the last number of years making sure that it’s a fairly well-balanced diet of food that we send out. It includes produce and proteins, but we’ve also added a few household products of late and started up a new program for that.
Mulder: We’ve also changed our snack program a little for school-age children to include fresh whole foods. We’re pretty proud of that and we’ve gotten some really great feedback. We’ve initiated monthly specials now. We’ve also been able to spend funds on some of our harder-to-find items or things [cooking oil, toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc.] that don’t often get donated, and obtain a quantity enough to be equitable when we are addressing the community.
What goals does the Burlington Food Bank hope to achieve in 2025?
Mulder: What we’re excited about is that we’re going to be working on a strategic plan for the future of the food bank. It’s something that we’ve had so far, but it hasn’t been quite as structured as what we want to look at. That’s starting right in January.
Bailey: A big piece for us is that we’re including our neighbours. It’s not just going to be our staff, our volunteers, and our board. Instead, we’re actually going to be reaching out to our partners as well as those who are using the food bank. We really want their input on what we’re doing well and what we can be working on.
How will the Burlington Food Bank become more involved in the community in 2025?
Mulder: The Burlington community is a very generous community. We’re really focused on community building. We have the community gardens and we partner with other agencies in Burlington, one being Community Living Burlington. And the City of Burlington as well. Hopefully, we’ll also work with a few other like-minded agencies that will be supporting their community gardens, and the food literacy that goes around it. It’s really about the building of community within those spaces. We’re very fortunate that the produce from those gardens comes from here in Burlington and we’re able to share it.
Bailey: We have a number of events that are sort of mainstays for the food bank. We’re pretty sure we’re going to be a [Tim Hortons] “Smile Cookie” beneficiary this year. That’s a huge event for us, where people can really engage with us. People will have the opportunity to decorate cookies on our behalf. We’ve done an event a couple of years now at the Burlington Centre called “Canstruction” and we’re going to be doing that again. That’s another great opportunity along with The Gift of Giving Back. There are lots of opportunities for people to engage with us and we try to engage with the community at the same time. And we’re always looking for volunteers, for the extras.
How does the Burlington Food Bank hope to relieve the burden of rising food prices in 2025?
Mulder: We’re going to continue to try to reach folks in the community that maybe don’t know about us, or folks who think they need to qualify and won’t qualify, to really lessen the stigma of attending a food bank. We can’t directly impact the cost of food or the cost of living, but what we can do is this. If someone gets one or two grocery shops a month through us, that’s several hundred dollars that they could then put towards other expenses and other bills that are piling up like housing and transportation to get work and all kinds of different things. That’s how we hope that our efforts will help alleviate food insecurity. When people can’t afford life, one of the first things they will do is skip a meal. It’s easy to sacrifice themselves rather than their loved ones. They need a roof over their head. They need the hydro on. They need to get to work in order to pay the other bills. So if we can alleviate that one grocery bill, we really hope that it assists them that way.
If you wish to donate to the Burlington Food Bank, or if you need to use the food bank, you can go directly to the Burlington Food Bank website for contact information and hours of operation. You can also apply to volunteer by filling out an application.
