After nearly running out, Sault foodbank receives a tonne of pasta from the community

A pasta shortage in Sault Ste. Marie is almost never the case, but for one local food bank, the common carb was a rare sight just a few weeks ago.

St. Vincent Place was nearly out of pasta until a community campaign filled their shelves and then some.

This summer had been especially slow for donations to food banks like St. Vincent Place, but the tides turned in recent weeks.

"For the first time maybe ever, we actually, ran out of dry pasta," said Sara McCleary of St. Vincent Place.

"So, I put a plea out on Facebook saying this is the situation, can anyone help? And we got a lot of individuals donating. And then we were really surprised by a one-tonne donation of pasta from Metro. So that was a really pleasant surprise.”

On Sept. 28, St. Vincent is holding its Big Blue Food Drive, the largest food drive of the year for the organization, it usually keeps the shelves full until the holidays.

Because of the one-tonne donation, they're likely good on pasta until the year's end -- but they aren't discouraging the public from donating more.

On Sept. 28, St. Vincent is holding its Big Blue Food Drive, the largest food drive of the year for the organization. It usually keeps the shelves full until the holidays. (Photo from video)

"Our plan is sort of if we get as much as we expect, we might be able to share, with other organizations in town now as well," McCleary said.

"So, it's really great to see the community come together like that, and we'll be able to help out other groups now, as well."

Among the many uses of the donated goods is Lunches for Learning. Now in its fourth year, the program offers stigma-free meals for kids to take to school.

It has grown from 40 participants to 250 this year.

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"We know a lot of kids kind of are hesitant to access school programs because they don't want to be made fun of or whatever the situation may be," McCleary said.

"Whereas with this program, families pick up the food directly and then they take it home, and then kids take a lunch to school with them. So ... nobody knows that that's how they're getting that food."

St. Vincent Place requires upwards of 200 volunteers to run the Big Blue Food Drive. Currently, the organization has just a dozen people taking part.

For more information on signing up to volunteer, and for a list of foods that are of the highest need in the community, visit the St. Vincent Place website.