This year’s cold temperatures are hitting low income earners the hardest.
Chester’s Lighthouse Food Bank is looking for some donations to top them up after serving over thirty families last week.
Wendy Sheppard, coordinator of the food bank, says those clients are feeling the pinch of their heating costs.
“The last gentleman that was here just said to me ‘we’re having trouble, we had to buy extra wood, the temperature is going down’ so that is definitely a factor.”
Sheppard says they’re looking for non-perishables and did a call out on Facebook for those items.
“We’re all out of our canned meats like canned chicken, canned tuna, you that you’d make for sandwiches so we asked in particular for that.”
They’re also in need of ketchup.
The food bank accepts cash as well, which allows them to purchase items in bulk at Costco.
Sheppard says the food bank is meant as a stop gap so they only see clients once a month, but they had had some emergency situations this winter where people need a box of food outside that time frame.
She wants people to know as well that although Chester is seen as a wealthy community, there are people in need there as well as in surrounding communities, which the food bank also serves.
Donations can be made at the Municipality of Chester, Spidle’s Independent Grocer, Foodland, Jeff’s Old Volks Home, and the Chester Pharmasave.
Story by Brittany Wentzell
Twitter: @BrittWentzell
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca
