Meghan Nicholls grew up in a family very committed to community service, which is what got her into the non-profit sector that is her whole career now.
Nicholls said what has kept her with Food Banks Mississauga for 15 years is that the work is not done yet.
“I feel compelled to continue doing the work we’re doing because my community is not better off yet,” the CEO said. She said it has been incredibly challenging for the people after the pandemic but “there’s the sense that there is still more work to do.”
Nicholls said she keeps encouraging people who are not aware of the crisis at hand to learn about the crisis.
“I continue to flank people out in the wild who aren’t aware of the fact that there is a food insecurity and poverty emergency in Canada and until we can address this, my plan is to keep fighting,” she said.
Nicholls said the cost-of-living crisis affects the food bank on multiple fronts where people cannot afford to donate, and more people need the food bank.
“I think people understand that for today, what people can do today to make sure people have food today is donate,” she said.
Nicholls said food banks need people’s financial support so they can get the food to bring to those in their community who need it.
“And in the long term, we need to make this an election issue, we need to be advocating to our governments to increase the social assistance rates, to pass a groceries and essentials benefit, to improve E.I. (Employment Insurance), to invest in affordable housing,” she said.
Nicholls said this dabbling around the edges does not help getting to the root of the issue which is poverty. And poverty alleviation and that’s what they should be focused on.
“This is a very, very challenging time, that’s why we declared an emergency at the city on Nov. 13,” she said.
Nicholls said the food bank works very closely with the Mississauga mayor’s office and requested that it draw more attention to the issue.
“It means now, we and the city, are advocating together to the Premier’s Office, to the Prime Minister’s Office, to the associations and municipalities of Ontario,” she said.
Nicholls said they are writing letters together and advocating together and this shows that the city is not responsible for food insecurity and that they are doing everything that they can.
“While food banks don’t primarily serve people who are homeless, people become homeless when they can’t afford the basics of life,” she said.
She said it is now more families that cannot afford a place and people with jobs but it makes sense because the average income in Mississauga is $17,000, which is the cost of an apartment in the city.
“The thing that has been tough to hear this year is the folks saying that last year I was a donor and this year I need to be here to use the food bank,” Nicholls said.
She said she cannot imagine what that is like for people to get to the point where they realize they have maxed out their credit and live on the edge.
“It’s hard to see people in your community just really not have the resources that they need just for a decent standard of living,” Nicholls said.
Peter Wixson, executive director of the Vaughan Food Bank, said they have seen a little increase in year-to-year usage of food banks.
“In our food bank, not one person gets paid, there are no salaries paid, and everybody is a volunteer,” Wixson said.
Wixson said food insecurity “is the ignorance of the people here to not understand what a best before date is and an expiry date is.”
He said these terms get people confused and they do not eat the food past the dates printed on the packages and they end up throwing them out.
“This causes a lot of wastage in our garbage systems and recycling,” Wixson said.
Wixson said his food bank is providing up to 1.5 million meals in Vaughan alone, and another 1.5 million in regions around Vaughan, as well as globally which is close to three million meals per year.
He said food security is more about securing the food that other people will not eat, and shipping that off to a third-world country. Wixson said he sees pictures regularly from all around the world of people, thanking him for the food that people here will not eat.
“That’s what matters, how much you are providing in meals,” Wixson said.
He said they are proactive, regularly running food drives and staff at the Vaughan food bank don’t receive any pay. He said they just finished a turkey drive with Fortinos where they got more than 500 turkeys on the weekend.
Users of the food bank depend on how the individual lives, because everybody has their own problems, and someone could make a lot of money, but their situation could put them in a precarious position.
“When they are talking about the amount of salaries (of users, it) depends on the individual what they are paying for rent, what they have left in order to buy food, but you don’t just go and blame the rentals, salaries and stuff like this,” Wixson said.
He said it depends on how the individual lives, because everybody has their own problems, and you could make a lot of money, but your situation could be very different.
“We had somebody who was making about $6,000 a month but the time they had their take-home pay it was down to $4,000, but at the time they were paying out $5,000 per month for cancer treatment,” Wixson said.
He said political figures want to use food banks to say everybody using them is starving to death, which is not true.
“I don’t blame the politicians, I blame the world, so to me, they use the politicians as an excuse,” Wixson said.
Josie Fedele, who has been a volunteer with Vaughan Food Bank for several years now, said every volunteer at the food bank is very compassionate to everybody’s needs when they walk in the door.
“Some of us take it to a more emotional level and some don’t, we’re all different, but we are all here to give back to the community and to hopefully make it a better place for everyone to live in,” Fedele said.
She said she’s one of the people who has had some ups and downs in her life and the food bank restored her respect and dignity.
“I am here five days a week, sometimes six or seven, right now with the holiday season approaching it’s been seven days a week,” Fedele said. “The days have been long.”
She said Wixson’s hands are full so she tends to help him wherever she can.
Fedele said there is not a lack of volunteers at the Vaughan Food Bank and their mailbox gets overwhelmed with the number of requests they get from people offering to volunteer.
She said it is the holiday season and there are bigger volumes of volunteers that come around during this time of the year.
“But here in the Vaughan community it’s like that every day, our community is what keeps us going, they’re there for us all the time," Fedele said.
She said different age groups of people walk through the door every single day and they all come from different walks of life.
“You may have an individual standing there who has a family of five, you may have the next individual who is single, and the next one after that is a couple, it varies,” Fedele said.
She said there is not a certain demographic that the Vaughan Food Bank can pinpoint to say that the usage has increased.
“Our doors are open to everybody, we’re here to serve those in need in our community, with compassion, dignity and respect. If they need us, we're here for them,” Fedele said.
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