North Bay's Gathering Place to put more plates on the table for West Ferris residents

The head of the Gathering Place in North Bay says they're expanding their food insecurity service to more people.

Dennis Chippa says they're getting ready to offer programs to people in the West Ferris area of the city, which is far away from the Gathering Place site. He says people would need to use transit to access it.

The West Ferris area has always been under-serviced, Chippa notes, andthe ongoing pandemic has had a lasting impact.

"We saw that impact. Ithasn't really drifted off ...the numbers were high," he said.

"So when the pandemic hit ...we knew we we're going to have to prepare extra meals. We're trying to turn it froma negative to a positive."

The centre received funding from the United Way to offer the expanded service.

According to its website, The Gathering Placedoesn't receive core funding from the government, and is funded entirely by community donations and annual fundraising events.

It delivers programming to address food insecurity issues in the North Bay area, includingdaily drop-in meals, a community garden space, cooking education and food rescue.