'We choose bread and butter': Life lessons from the Carbonear food bank

Kerri Abbott has some invaluable advice for new volunteers at the St. Vincent de Paul food bank in Carbonear: wear lots of layers.

As she puts it, "it's either bread and butter or heat. We choose bread and butter."

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Abbott is quite serious. In order to purchase bread and butter, items that are rarely donated, volunteers at the food bank keep the heat off in the building to save on the bill.

Every little bit saved counts. The power bill is staying down because the demand for the food bank's services is up dramatically.

"Three years ago, we served about 200 Christmas hampers," Abbott said in an interview.

"Last year we did over 375. This year, registered, we have about 800."

Demand climbing, week by week by week

Abbott said other things have changed.

"Every year we have our Christmas hampers stockpiled for," she said. "This is the first year that I've ever been here and the week of [preparing hampers] having to reach out to people for cranberry sauce or tins of peas."

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The number of clients has been consistently increasing over the past year.

Just an increase of having $20 piled onto your monthly bills is breaking them.- Kerri Abbott

The number of monthly clients has risen to 350 a month, while each week brings between "a half-dozen to a dozen" new clients.

Apart from the increase, Abbott says the background of clientele has been shifting over the years.

"It's changed," said Abbott, adding that when she started there about four years ago, most requests came from people on social assistance.

"That was the big bulk of who were serving. But over the last three years, that has shifted. We're serving the working poor and we're serving seniors."

'Living paycheque to paycheque'

According to Abbot, there has been a 42 per cent increase of the working poor clients those working minimum wage jobs who still cannot afford their monthly needs and a 32 per cent increase in senior clients in the last year alone.

Also, the number of clientele who are on social assistance has decreased from 90 to 50 per cent of total clientele.

Volunteers at the food bank say increases in bills and taxes brought about by the controversial 2016 provincial budget could account for many of the changes they've seen.

"People who are living paycheque to paycheque or from payment to payment and [are]struggling to do that just an increase of having $20 piled onto your monthly bills is breaking them," said Abbott.

"They're probably already on a budget plan or a redirect plan with Newfoundland Power," added Kim Crane, who has volunteered with the food bank for the past four years.

"They just don't have the funds. So when a utility goes up, they don't have the means to increase how do you tell someone who is working at a local retail store or at a restaurant and tell them there is hope?"

Lose your assumptions, volunteers say

Abbott, who describes hunger as a "hidden issue," said assumptions should not be made about who needs help.

"You cannot look at someone and tell that they're hungry. You'd be surprised at who is struggling."

It's 2016. It is unacceptable for people to be hungry.- Kerri Abbott

Volunteers noted that the high amount of donations received during December is inconsistent with lower amounts donated throughout the year.

"Come January, our donations will drop dramatically," said Abbott, adding that the food bank feels the pinch the most during the summer.

"Kids are home there's no breakfast program during the summer. There's no lunch program during the summer," she said.

"So kids are home more, and eating more, and families are struggling more to keep up with that."

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This summer, the food bank in Carbonear ran out of supplies on several occasions.

"That's the first time that's happened since I've been working at the food bank," she said.

"When we run out of food, that's telling us that we need to do more in our community," Abbott said.

"It's 2016. It is unacceptable for people to be hungry."