South Porcupine Food Bank officially opens new location to serve people throughout Timmins and beyond
The South Porcupine Food Bank had little time to waste after smoke damage over the summer spoiled its inventory and place of operation. But the community came to its rescue while officials looked for a new place to serve their clients, and they officially opened that new location this weekend.
"We’re pretty excited, said Peter Davis, the treasurer for the South Porcupine Food Bank. "We’ve gone through a couple of months trying to renovate, get things painted, get our new freezers and fridge."
A fire in June, next door to the original location on Main Street, South Porcupine, forced the move. Davis said it hasn't been easy to find a new, accessible building to meet its needs.
He said the Porcupine Mall offered free space for the interim, until Davis secured the Bloor Avenue address after the Timmins and District Humane Society closed its thrift shop.
The South Porcupine Food Bank began serving its clients from the new location Saturday and Davis said it's happening at a good time.
“For someone who’s on a really fixed income-be it a disability income- ... they’re struggling to make ends meet for their monthly rent and everything else, so the food bank really makes a big difference.”
Volunteers said although there is less space in the new location, the rewarding experience of helping people makes up for it.
“It’s going to serve us well. There’s a few things that need to be modified but that comes with any location," said Devon Dysart, a volunteer with the South Porcupine Food Bank.
Davis added, with the cost of groceries going up, he's seeing more families come to use the food bank since August. In September, he said it served one-hundred and forty-six adults and eighty-two children.
He also said, thanks to a grant from Agriculture Canada and some savings, the Food Bank was able to purchase a new van to make it easier to buy, collect and deliver food in bulk throughout the community to other organizations in need.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Amid concerns over 'collateral damage' Trudeau, Freeland defend capital gains tax change
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Competition bureau finds 'substantial' anti-competitive effects with proposed Bunge-Viterra merger
The proposed merger of agricultural giants Viterra and Bunge is raising competition concerns from the federal government.
Douglas DC-4 plane with 2 people on board crashes into river outside Fairbanks, Alaska
A Douglas C-54 Skymaster airplane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks on Tuesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
BREAKING Mounties will not be charged in shooting death of B.C. Indigenous man
Three Mounties in British Columbia will not face charges in the killing of a 38-year-old Indigenous man on Vancouver Island in 2021.
Canada's favourite sport to watch is hockey, survey shows
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs have already delivered a fever level of fan excitement in Canada.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
“It's just so hard to let it go. I mean, everyone is telling me, ‘you have to move on,’ but I know someone is not here [anymore]. So I don't know how I will move on." That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.