Volunteers deliver hundreds of food boxes

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Hundreds of volunteers turned out to the Moncton Coliseum Wednesday afternoon to deliver more than 1,500 Christmas food boxes to individuals and families throughout the city.

The food box program is a long tradition that was carried on by the Food Depot Alimentaire for many years and was taken over by the Peter McKee Community Food Centre in 2022, after the food depot became a provincial food distributor.

“We completely took it over this year,” said Christine Taylor, general manager of the McKee Centre.

Each year, the community helps out with extra donations and the end result is appreciative people accepting their boxes from volunteer drivers.

Recipients like Arianna Roach, a student at Mount Allison, were extremely appreciative. As were Mitch and Melissa Landry, who applied for a box but also wanted to help deliver some to people who don’t have a vehicle.

Taylor said donations paid for approximately 1,550 boxes at $80 each and money was still coming from donors. She said the food bank is always in need of donations of food and cash to keep the shelves stocked.

“I got a message from a young girl who said, ‘I’ve just gotten my Christmas food box, thank you so much. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate this because I have no food and no family.’ That’s why we do it,” said Taylor. 

In past years, the food box program has benefitted from getting turkeys from the Sue Stultz Turkey Drive. However, this year’s turkey drive resulted in donations of 1,912, which was far short of the goal of 3,979. McKee centre board chairperson Gary Jamieson said the food bank served more than 5,089 people in October and watched the demand double since last year.

The Christmas food boxes contained a turkey loaf (or the vegan option) along with apples, margarine, milk, bread, carrots, potatoes, cereal, peas, peanut butter, pancake mix and syrup, cookies, oatmeal, gravy mix, stuffing and complimentary tickets to a Moncton Wildcats game. The boxes were packed by volunteers at the Coliseum. At noon on Wednesday, the doors of the Agrena were opened and volunteers driving their own vehicles moved through to pick up boxes and take them to the clients. Members of the Bernice MacNaughton High School hockey team were on hand to help load the vehicles.

Most of the applications for Christmas boxes came from food bank clients, and everyone goes through a screening process. Taylor said the demand continues to increase for people who are working but not making enough. There are also families with children, recent immigrants and students on their own.

Taylor said many of the applications came from students and recent immigrants who have been overwhelmed by rising costs of food and rent as a result of inflation. She said the food bank wants to work with post-secondary institutions in the city to set up their own food banks.