Brandon pay-what-you-can meal program needs help after losing freezer storage space

A successful pay-what-you-can meal program in Brandon, Man., is losing an essential piece of equipment next month.

The John Howard Society in the southern city has been operating the Everyone Eats Brandon programfor the past year. But come November, the organizationwill no longer have access to the freezer space it's used tostore the food used in the affordable dishes.

The organization has been using a refrigerated trailer that will no longer be available, leaving it in urgent need of help, says the Westman region executive director for the John Howard Society.

"What we're looking for is some temporary freezer space,"Ross Robinson said in a Saturdayinterview with CBC Manitoba's Weekend Morning Show.

"We don't need a 42-foot freezer trailer ... but we need more than a couple chest freezers, because we get pallet loads of food and we need tostore it properly so that it can be produced into a good, hearty, nutritious meals."

Robinson estimates that the organization will need freezer space for a couple of months.

For now, all the food that can't be easily stored is being donated to local food banks.

Everyone Eats Brandon started in Octoberlast year, when organizers realized some people might have difficulty accessing food because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anyone who wants to try the food can order meals online or over the phone (204-441-4551) and pay what they can. If money is tight, people can request a free meal.

"The intent is that the meals that we provide are good enough that we're going to attract people who are willing to pay," Robinson said.They're also intended to be "presented in a manner inwhich people don't have to line up at a soup kitchen line or ... fora hamper or anything like that," he said.

"The meals come in regardless of what they pay. It's exactly the same service."

The program is made possible by donations and grants, including donations of food that's perfectly good to eatbut may otherwise be disposed of.

"It's incredible ... the amount of surplus food that's out there just looking for a home before it has to get plowed into the ground."

Anyone who is able to help Everyone Eats Brandonaccess freezer space is asked to contact them via their Facebook page or website.