Fresh produce always welcome at food bank

Now is the time of year when gardens are overflowing.

A lot of Humboldt and area residents are putting that surplus to good use by donating to the Humboldt Food Bank.

Kevin Reiter of the Humboldt Food Bank is always happy to see fresh produce like potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, beets, spaghetti and butternut squash come through his door. People who use the food bank are delighted to see it too.

“At this time of year, when we’re getting all those different types of things, they are just so happy to get  that stuff because it’s not something they’d normally get,” Reiter said.

The Humboldt Food Bank started receiving fresh produce in July, said Reiter. This fall, they’ve had at least 100 different people donating fresh garden-grown vegetables to the food bank from all over the area.

Donations last year were so plentiful that Reiter says he did not have to buy potatoes until March. Some people even stored potatoes for them.

“One guy in Cudworth in particular, he wanted to bring some in October already and I asked him to hold off and he said he had a really good storage area and he could wait until later,” he said.

Along with fresh produce, people who use the food bank are also excited to see fresh meat. Donations from local hunters are also welcome, as long as their donation is cut and wrapped by a butcher. It really makes their day, said Reiter.

The Humboldt Food Bank saw a 44 per cent increase in food bank usage in 2015 from 2014. Reiter sees 90-110 families come through every month from Humboldt and the surrounding area. In a month, 841,191 people use Canadian food banks,; 310,461 of which are children.

“It’s unbelievable how many people use the food bank...I’m really surprised how many people are hungry in this area,” Reiter said.

The next food banks in either direction are as far away as Lanigan, Wynyard, Melfort and Saskatoon. The families that use the Humboldt food bank come from halfway points between all four locations, Reiter said.

Other things the Humboldt Food Bank is looking for are peanut butter, pasta, canned meat, canned stew and beans.

Hunger awareness week is this week and Reiter wants people to take this week to think about what it is like on the “other side.”

“We can sit down and think, ‘What do I want for supper,’” Reiter said. “We have so many choices, but there are people who don’t...they don’t have choices like the rest of us do.”