Left to right, Battlefords Food Bank warehouse supervisor Kjell Graupe, manager Blake Feist, and executive director Erin Katerynych show some of the fresh produce received. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Plenty of produce received

Battlefords Food Bank thankful for donations to meet need

Oct 10, 2021 | 4:45 PM

THE BATTLEFORDS, Sask – The Battlefords Food Bank had a successful past season, receiving close to 9,000 pounds worth of fresh produce over the summer.

The Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre (Food Bank) Executive Director Erin Katerynych said the organization is grateful to all gardeners and farmers for their support.

“Thank you for all the produce,” she said. “[We received] lots of potatoes, squash, tomatoes, cucumber. Anything you can grow in the garden we basically got and we loved it. It was fantastic.”

The fresh produce donation began coming in August, followed by a large amount in September. More potatoes are continuing to be received now.

“We are still getting produce,” Katerynych said. “It makes our hampers a lot more healthy because we are able to give out a lot of produce with the food.”

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Pumpkins that were donated were given to the schools in the Battlefords. Katerynych said it was exciting for children to receive a pumpkin who don’t usually get one at home.

With the impact from the ongoing COVID-19 situation, more families continue to use the local Food Bank.

“We have been going up,” Katerynych said. “In September we handed out food hampers to over 500 different families, helping over 1,000 children.”

As well, the Food for Kids program with the schools is back up and running. The program provided about 120 bags of food to various schools in the community for children to take home on weekends.

“It’s up compared to last year too,” Katerynych said.

Currently, the Food Bank would like to see more non-perishable food donations to meet the demand in the community for the food hamper and other programs.

“We are always in need of non-perishable food items,” Katerynych said. “Right now we are quite low on baby formula and baby food. But all non-perishable food items like canned vegetables, soups and [other items] we are always in need of.”

Bags for Homeless

The Food Bank recently started a Bags for the Homeless program since there was a need.

As a result the organization is also looking for more easy-to-open cans of food that don’t require heating.

“[It’s] for people who don’t have a home right now,” Katerynych said. “We like to just give them some food they don’t need to refrigerate, that they don’t need a can opener for.”

The program started this past summer. In September the Food Bank gave out 11 homeless bags for people without a place to stay.

“We saw a lot more of it,” Katerynych said of the need. “So we have been handing out these bags for people. A lot of them are just passing through too.”

The Food Bank is asking people to donate soups and stews, or tuna and cracker combination products to give for the homeless bag program. People can also donate healthier items such as protein bars and similar products the hungry can eat on the go.

Non-perishables needed

As well, the Food Bank continues to encourage people to make a donation, especially non-perishables, whether for its emergency food hamper program or any of its other programs to help those without.

“We’re happy with all donations to be honest, because if we don’t use it today we’ll use it tomorrow,” Katerynych said.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow