Guysborough Food Bank applies for national accreditation

GUYSBOROUGH — As the number of people and families needing its services continue to rise, the Guysborough & Area Food Bank is waiting to learn whether it will be formally accredited under a new, national “standards of excellence” program designed to ensure “consistency, safety and care.”

Elizabeth Connolly, manager of the local non-profit group, said she filled out the form this spring and hopes to soon hear back from Food Banks Canada – a national charitable organization that supports a network of 10 provincial associations and 5,100 “hunger relief” entities across Canada.

“It was a lot of work,” she told The Journal in an interview last week. “Now, we have to wait to hear back from the auditors if we’re going to be accredited, or if we have to change something that we’re doing... So, it’s a waiting game.”

Food Banks Canada did not return The Journal’s call before press time but, according to Corrina Parent, interim communications manager of Feed Nova Scotia – a registered charity listed as one of the national organization’s provincial associations, which distributes food to 140 food banks (including Guysborough’s), shelters and soup kitchens in the province – the national program, launched in January, is important.

“Accreditation is not technically a requirement of all food banks – there are many that are not accredited, or simply don’t meet the standards for accreditation based on their operating model (community fridges would be one example),” she said in an email.

“However, if food banks wish to be a member of the provincial Feed Nova Scotia network, and the national Food Banks Canada network, then they will need to work towards meeting the accreditation standards. The goal is ensuring that food bank clients will receive consistent, high-quality service and can be assured of the highest standards of safety and care.”

She added: “There have always been standards of compliance required by the Feed Nova Scotia network and Food Banks Canada; this new program is an updated, more thorough, national guideline.”

Connolly couldn’t agree more – both about its value and the work involved to qualify.

“Even though the [paperwork] took a lot of time, it’s a very good thing,” she said. “It means that [we’re] up to the standards that we should be operating under. We were already [meeting] a lot of [them] – it was a matter of putting [them] all down on paper.”

Connolly noted the local bank – which she and her husband Myles have been managing and operating since 2005 under a volunteer board of directors – already has a good, albeit informal, relationship with Food Banks Canada. “We do certain things that go through them, such as our hunger count at the month of March. We receive a lot of correspondence from them. It’s an excellent organization.”

Keeping that relationship vital and up-to-date is more important than ever, she said.

“Financially, we’re doing well, but we’re also busier than ever. Feed Nova Scotia’s truck [of food] comes in every Thursday morning, but we never know what we’re going to get. [Meanwhile], prices are going through the roof on the stock supplies that we buy [with public donations] ourselves – canned fruit, soups, tuna, ham; cereal and cookies. Clients are coming more often. It used to be, like, once a month. Now, we’re finding a lot of people are coming back before the [end of] the month.”

Parent confirmed that, “We absolutely are still seeing an increase in need across the province. In Jan-May 2024, the food banks in the Feed Nova Scotia network served 168,803 people, which is a 21 per cent increase over the same time period in 2023 (last year also saw an overall 27 per cent increase over 2022 in food bank visitors).”

She added: “Double-digit increases every year seem to be becoming the norm as more and more folks are struggling to keep up with the cost of living... More people who list employment as their primary source of income are using food banks and more people have post-secondary educations.”

Parent said that, because the new Food Bank of Canada Standards of Excellence “are quite an undertaking, we are working hard with our members to support them through the process and have hired a dedicated Feed Nova Scotia staff member to support food banks as they work towards compliance.”

For her part, Connolly isn’t worried. “I really worked hard on it and got it completed. I don’t know if they are going to make it an actual requirement, but the [accreditation] is certainly going to look a lot better for your food bank.”

Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal